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MiriiAiu. H. TIE Yoi'NG, Proprietor San Francisco CHRONici.r., 
President International Leacue of Press Clcbs. 



A Press Club 
Outing. 



^ 



A trip .... 

Across the Continent to attend the First Convention 
^of the Internationa! League of Press Clubs. 



BY 



Thomson P. McElrath, 

Historian of the Trip. 



$ 



NEW YORK : 

International League of Press Clubs. 
1893. 






Entered ticcnrding to Act of Congress, in the year 1S93, by Thomson P. McElralh, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



The James Kemister Pkimim. C(»mi-any, 

117-11Q-121 Liberty Street, 

New York. 




*" ^l/f ^ HIS brief record of a very agreeable journey 
oi^lw^ from the Atlaiitic to the Pacific and back again, 
/^{/mSsM, liad its origin in a resointioti adopted by the 
Convention of the International League of Press 
Cliibs, in session in the rooms of the San Fran- 
cisco Press Club, January i^th, i8g2. The 
official report of the proceedings of that Conven- 
tion refers to the subject as folloivs : 

"On the motion of Mr. Wf.i.shons, of Pittsburgh, Major 
T. P. McElrath, of New York, was elected Historian of the 
League, to prepare a book descriptive of the California trip ; 
with the President and Secretary as an advisory committee, to 
arrange for the publication of the work." 

IIic preparation cf the book has been attended loith 
delays and hindrances both potent and unavoidable, j'or 
which the loriter alone is responsible, and for ziltich he 
asks the friendly indulgence of his jcllow travelers. 
Similar lenity he trusts they loill accord to the book 
itself, accepting it rather in the light of a completed task 
than in that of a fnishcd production. It is too little 
a pudding to contain many plums. Its purpose, as the 
IV r iter conceives it, ivill be fully served if it proves 
adequate to keep alive the delightful personal associations 
connected ivifh the three memorable weeks of sunshine and 
pleasure enjoyed by the Press Club Delegates to the Sati 
Francisco Convention. 




PREFACE 



At a public meeting of the International League of Press 
Clubs in the Powell Street Opera House, San Francisco, on the 
evening of January 15th, 1892, more than twenty letters from the 
most eminent and successful men in journalism and literature were 
read, and were received with cordial applause by the laige 
audience. Extracts from a few of them will give an accurate idea 
of the tenor of their expressions. Mr. George William Curtis 
wrote: "The general objects of the League of Press Clubs, as I 
understand them, seem to me worthy of the most zealous promotion. 
I see no good reason why the courtesy of the press should not be 
as distinguished as its independence and vigor." Mr. Chester S. 
Lord wrote: "I approve most assuredly of the objects and 
|)urj)oses vvhich have led to the organization of the International 
League, and I wish the association ever}' possible success." Hon. 
Theodore Barth wrote from Berlin : " Unfortunately, my duties 
as a member of the German Reichstag, just now in session, do 
not permit the acceptance of the invitation. This I regret so 
much more because, in my opinion, the idea of uniting repre- 
sentatives of the press in international congresses is a very happy 
one. In view of the far-reaching and constantly growing 
influence of the press, its representatives can do more than legis- 
lators and diplomats for maintaining friendly relations among 
nations, towards removing nativistic prejudices, for exercising 
international justice and fostering especially mterests which are 
common to all mankind." Colonel John A. Cockerill wrote : "I 
believed in the League from the outset. The best results must 



flow from the establishment of the closer hrotherhood among the 
press workers of both hemispheres." Dr. Max Nordeau wrote 
from Paris : " I am at heart with you. I highly appreciate 
your noble aim, and think it a most happy idea to unite all the 
press workers of the world in one great brotherhood." Hon. 
Amos J. Cummings wrote : "I hope that the International League 
of Press Clubs will finally include delegates from press clubs in 
every State in the United States where a daily newspaper is 
published." The other letters were similar in their endorsements 
of the plans and purposes of the organization of the newspaper 
workers of the world. These quotations are made for the reason 
that the writers represent the various ]ihases of practical and 
successful journalism. 

There has always been a need of a general association of the 
people who write and edit newspapers, but one great ol)stacle 
stood in the way of those who tried to carry the matter to a 
substantial result. Newspaper men are bothered with hard things 
called opinions, and when the matter is close to their own interests 
the opinion is apt to be somewhat narrow, which, of course, goes 
to show that the newspaper men are painfully like the rest of their 
race. So, while the journalism of the world has been the evangel 
and the messenger boy of civilization, and has spread progress 
and culture and humanitv until its scope has measured to the limit 
of human achievement, with all the widening possibilities of life 
itself, the newspaper men, as a profession, have not done what 
they could have done to get together and to receive the benefits 
that must always come from association. The reasons for this 
are many, and all are sufficient. In the first place, the bees in 
the hive are busy bees, always at wcjrk making honey — or 
the other thing — and with few spare moments for assembling 
under the roses to discuss co-operative industry and organized 



courtesy. Then, too, the different swarms have shown a great 
fondness for swarming by themselves without even the formahty of 
fraternal greetings to the other swarms. And so it has gone on 
until the International League of Press Clubs has opened a way 
along which all may go. 

There are numerous organizations of editors and publishers in 
this and other countries, and all are useful, but they are organiza- 
tions of representatives of newspapers. The League differs from 
them in that it binds together the associations of newspaper men. 
It represents the journalists as individuals rather than the news- 
papers as institutions. It is more social in its ambition, and " its 
objects," to quote its Constitution, "are to bring into close and 
friendly relations the press clubs of the world, and promote a more 
fraternal and helpful feeling among its members." It thus 
antagonizes none of the other organizations, but invites the favor 
and co-operation of all. The desire, especially, is to organize the 
men and women of the daily press more thoroughly. Press Clubs 
with us are modern. They are the out-growth of the new 
conditions in journalism. As they multiplied and became greater 
in membership and more important in material prosperity than all 
the other Press Clubs in the world, they felt the wisdom of a 
closer communion of interests and began to discuss means by 
which mutual advantages could be secured. About ten years ago 
the project of a national association was mooted. Shortly after- 
wards the New York Press Club sent out circulars calling for a 
meeting of representatives of all the Press Clubs of the country. 
Differences between the East and West defeated the enterprise 
and it was not until a few years ago that it was revived. Mr. 
Thomas J. Keenan, Jr., then Secretary, and afterwards President, 
of the Pittsburgh Press Club, entered into correspondence with 
the Clubs of Canada and the United States, and the outcome of 



his work was a formal invitation to "the journalistic organizations 
of the United States, Canada, the City of Mexico, and the capital 
cities of Europe and South America, to send delegates to a 
Convention to be held in Pittsburgh, on January 27th, iSgi, for the 
purpose of organizing an International Association of Press Clubs." 

Twenty-three clubs were represented in the Convention. The 
visitors were royally entertained. In the three days the League 
was burn, christened and matured, and Mr. Keenan was unanimously 
elected its first President. The merits of the movement were 
brielly : The association of the organizations of the newspaper 
men and newspaper women of the world ; the interchangeable 
credentials that admitted the member of one club to all clubs of 
the League ; the mutual assistance and encourao;ement of Leagfue 
members, and the general purpose to give the profession, or 
calling, as you wish, the broadest benefits of organization. The 
League met with immediate fa\'or. ami the proof of its usefulness 
is found in the fact that since it was established the press clubs in 
this countr}' have increased nearly one hundred per cent, in number, 
and more tlian one hundred per cent, in memliership. The coming 
in of tlie Crerman Press Clubs, and manv of the W^omen Press 
Clubs, had a decided eftect upon the life of the new organization. 

In tiie pages which follow, Major Mcl^lrath tells most 
delightfully the story of a wonderful journey. The League had 
been in\'iled to various cities, but San b'rancisco's offer of sunshine 
and dowers in Januaiv won the overwhelming favor of the 
Convention. l^or months previous to tlu' o])e'ning of 1892, the 
Hoard ol (iovernois was holding meetings in New York, shapint,^ 
the affairs of the League and eom])leting the arrangements for the 
transcoiuinenlal tour. The marx'vl^^ of California's hospitaJitv, tiie 
constant newness of scene and incident, and the beauty and the 
glory of it all, are described l)v Major Mcl-Lliath. But, outside of 



the entertainment, much was done by the delegates representing 
Press Clubs in nearly twenty States of the country, and indirectly 
representing thousands of newspaper workers. Especially important 
was the inauguration of a scheme to establish a home for aged and 
infirm journalists. The attention that the trip attracted can be 
inferred from the fact that more than four hundred columns of 
matter was written about it in the newspapers, including reports of 
the speeches, which have been omitted from this otherwise faithful 
narrative because it was desirable to limit the book to one volume 
and not to publish it on the instalment plan. 

Of course, the League is not old enough to be judged as an 
international orj^anization. Its career thus far is mainly experimental, 
but that there is need of it is evident. It represents the better 
aspirations of a calling that has the leadership of thought and 
progress as its destiny. There is no evolution more remarkable 
than that which is going on in journalism. Already the advance 
has been beyond every expectation, not onlv in methods and 
resources but in men and manners. Times have changed since the 
days when ministers were hauled up before their brothers and tried 
for making and selling whiskey, not because they made and sold 
whiskey, but because the whiskey was bad. Times have changed 
since the judge adjourned the court to see the eleijhant swim the 
river, and since drunkenness was regarded as a gentlemanly 
indulgence among the members of the bar. And times have 
changed since genius drank beer and smoked pipes in cellars and 
attics and made impecuniosity a cardinal virtue. The newspaper 
man of to-day is as well trained and as well educated as his 
professional contemporarv in the pulpit or at the bar. He is no 
longer a Bohemian ; he is one of the harilest of the world's 
workers, and a practical citizen. Occasionally he becomes a 
plutocrat ; sometimes he is a member of the Cabinet, or a minister 



to a foreign court ; he is found in the House of Representatives 
and in the Senate ; he permeates ail the departments of literature — 
l)ut, generally, and at his best, he is the ever-busy, ever-thoughtful, 
ever-anxious factor of news-collecting and news-editing — the historian 
of his times — the educator of his generation, and a right good 
fellow, who has his share of the virtues and the frailties of 
humanity. Times, too, have changed since the newspapers were 
published in dingy buildings amidst darkness and dust. Now, the 
buildings rise as far toward Heaven as they can get, and stand as 
achievements of architecture and as wonders for the special delight 
of country subscribers. This development is confined to no 
section ; it is going on everywhere. The largest newspaper building 
in America is west of the Mississippi River, and the Pacific coast 
rivals the old established papers of the East in great performances 
of news-gathering. While this country has distanced history and 
outdone the earth in its marvelous development, its newspapers 
have multiplied nine times more rapidly than its population, and 
their value has increased sixteen times faster than the national 
wealth. Last, but not least, the census gentleman is kind enough 
to inform us that of all the professions journalism is, on the average, 
the best paid. Considering these things, it is not too much to look 
forward to the time when the newspaper men shall have a general 
organization that will command the attention and the respect and 
the serious consideration of the world. 

The League is young yet, and its plans and purposes are only 
partly understood, but even in this stage of its development it 
has been an inlluence for good, and has given a promise of 
usefulness that has more than fultilled the hopes of those who 
were most active in organizing it. The extension of the League 
to all parts of newspaperdom will necessarily i)e slow, because 
many countries are without press clubs. But they will come in 



time. Those of us who want immediate results should look at 
the history of other professions. It took the doctors a great 
many years to establish their medical congress. Bar associations 
were the outgrowth of almost interminable efforts and discussions 
among the lawyers. Pan-church conferences are as old as the 
dogmas in theory, but they are extremely modern in fact. Science 
debated and struggled a long time before its representatives met 
in international councils. The Press League is less than three 
years old, but its strength has been splendidly seen in the growth 
of press clubs and the evident desire for better organization 
among newspaper men. Its real work has hardly begun, and its 
full advantages cannot be appreciated until it has become truly 
international in its scope and membership. When that point is 
reached it will be one of the most powerful organizations on earth. 
It is easy to smile at such optimism, but is there any one who 
honestly doubts that journalism, if it is not now, is sure to be the 
greatest factor, if not the greatest force, of civilization ? Every 
da)' the world is living and moving more and more in its news- 
papers. Every day the newspapers are more and more absorbing 
the thought and directing the activities of mankind. 

It is not claimed that the League represents all journalism. 
But it would like to represent it. It is a candidate for that high 
honor. It is a move which earnest men and women have made, 
and they desire to see their work taken up and advanced until 
it reaches to all the corners of the earth. It would be a happy 
satisfaction to mention the names of those who have been most 
active in the labors that have brought the League to its present 
position, but all the delegates and officers have cordially co-operated, 
and this is not a directory, but a preface which should have been 
written by a more important person than an ex-vice-president. 

Lynn R. Meekins. 

Baltimore, March 151'ir, 1893. 



mi 



They rested there, eseapee/ ai.^<hile 

Fro)ii eares that wear the life away. 

To eat the lotus of the Nile 
Atid drink the poppies of Cathay." 



mi 



y 





^t 



On 



Ml/ 
in: / 



of fi'uit, Jltnvers and frost ; of sleet and snow, 
and summer softness : of snow-capped mount- 
ains and valleys of sempiternal verdure ; of 
ice-locked streams a)id sea hatliins:: in mid- 
winter ; of royal hospitalities enjoyed lohile 
loitering on tlie sunny sJiore of the Pacific, and 
literary enterprise maintained at highest railzvay 
speed, among the snozvy crests of the Kockies ; 
of never-wearying charms of feminine szaeetness 

f and melody, and never-ceasing iterations of speech- 
making men : tliese and other points 
of close resemblance and startling 
contrast I am called upon to 
describe briefly, in a 
narrative of 



• a Railroad Journey '""" ' " 
New York 4^ San Francisco 
-%. • ^ • and Return -%. •-%,•-«. 






'^mT'^'^^'^'-' 



IFIK CKANIJ (J1-:N IKAl. M A I H i.N — M.W VnKK. 




Chapter i. 

New York to Sax Fraxcisco. 

JANUARY 6-13, 1892. 

HERE was a jolly gathering of men and women 
connected with the newspaper craft in the Grand 
Central Station, in New York City, on the morning 
of Wednesday, January 6th, 1892. Outside, the 
streets were rapidly whitening under the first heavy 
snowfall of the winter, and the sky was black with 
lowering clouds. It was a disagreeable day for out- 
door avocations. But in tiie passenger room of the 
New York Central and Eludson River Railroad on that eventful 
morning the state of the atmosphere was not a subject for even 
casual discussion. As the party arrived, singly or in couples, 

cordial greetings were exchanged, while the snow was brushed 
and shaken from overcoat and mantle, and all local consider- 
ations were ignored in the enthusiasm of jo\'ous expectancy 
that illuminates the spirits of people starting from home in the 
quest of pleasure. The object of this gathering of dames and 
knights of ([uill anil pencil was to attend the first annual Conven- 
tion of the International League of Press Clubs, which was 
appointed to be hehl in San Francisco on January 13th. A year 
previously a similar excursion, on a smaller scale, had been made 
by delegates from twenty-three Press Clubs of the East and the 
West to the City of Pittsburgh, where, in the intervals of a royal 



17 



entertainment, to which the whole population of that enterprising 
city seemed to contribute, there was organized a League, framed 
to comprise in its membership all the Press Clubs of the world. 
It was a charming- initiation of a beneficent enterprise, of whose 
possible scope prediction would as vet be futile. Several of those 
who attended that earlier Convention were among the present 
party, but the large feminine representation in the latter was an 
innovation, growing naturally out of one of the League's pet 
theories concerning the intellectual eciualit}' of the sexes. As the 
membershi]) is open equally to women of the press as to men, the 
committee having charge of the preparations for the San Francisco 
Convention authorized each delegate to invite his wife, or, in 
default of such incumbrance, his best girl, to accompany him. The 
advantage of this arrangement was manifest from the outset, 
particularly in the case of the married delegates, as it positively 
insured the presence of the better half of each domestic establish- 
ment represented, and on an occasion of this kind onlv the best 
was desirable. The persons who set out from New \'ork, and who 
joined the party on the route, and the Press Clubs to which they 
respectively were credited, were the following: 

New Vokk Press Club: 

William Rerri, Chairman, Brooklyn Stniiiiiin/- Union ; Charles W. Price, E/fctrii-a/ 
He^'iew ; W, R. Worrall, Mai/ ,nui Express; Major T. P. McElrath, American 
Analyst ; J. I. Charlouis, The School Journal : George F. Lyon, Law Journal ; Thos. 
H. Evans, New York representative Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle ; 
Alfred E. Pearsall, Commercial Advertiser ; E. B. Phelps, The Clul' : Chas. H. 
George, New York correspondent Baltimore American: Samuel C. Austin, Asso- 
ciated Press; Marshall P. Wilder, Sunday Advertiser : W. N. Penney, United Press. 
Guests— '^Us. William Berri, Mrs. Chas. W. Price, Mrs. W. R. Worrall, Mrs. T. P. 
McElrath, Mrs. J. L Charlouis, Mrs, Geo. F. Lyon, Mrs. Thos. H. Evans, Master 
"Tom" Evans, Mr. W. C. K. Wilde. Mrs. Frank Leslie-Wilde, Miss Mattison, 
Miss Kellogg, Miss Cottrell, Miss Kate Field, Dr. \. S. Hunter and wife, Miss 
Elita Proctor Otis, Mr. Foster Coates, Mr. M. H. Brown, Mr. G. H. Lowerre. 
Mr. ]. Seaver Page, Mr. J. C. Yager and wife. Mr. M. C. Roach. 

l8 




THE NEW YORK PRESS CLUB DELEGATES. 



W. H. WoRKALi., W. N. Peknev, J. I. CiiAKi.oris, C. H. Geokgb, 

T. p. McEl.RATH, WlI.MAM BeNRI, ChAS, W. PrICE. 

Geo. F. Lvon, M. p. Wilder, A. E. Pearsai.l. T. H. Evans. 



Boston Press Club: 

]. C. Morse, I. S. Keeler. W. C. Grout, HiralJ : W. V. Alexander, Transcript ; 
E. J. Carpenter, Advertiser ; William B. Smart, Post ; Thos. F. Anderson, Globe. 
Mr. Anderson, though a member of the Governing Board of the League, was 
unfortunate!)' compelled to leave the parly at Chicago. 
Guests — Miss Maria Parloa, Miss Helen Chamberlain. 

Buffalo Press Club: 

Byron R. Newton, News: Eugene J. Fleury, Express. 

German Pre.ss Club, New York: 

Dr. John Friederich, Ameriea>iische Sehweizer Zeiliiii^. 

New York Womans' Press Club: 

Miss M. V. Lewis. Miss Lewis joined the party in San Francisco and accompanied 
it on the three days' trip to Del Monte and San Jose. 

Chicago German Pre.ss Club: 

Emil Hoechster and wife. 

Cleveland Wo.men's Pr<Ess Club: 

Mrs. Elroy M. .^very.^ 

Grand Ratius Press Club: 

E. B. Fisher. W. B. Weston, of the Governing Board, joined at San Francisco. 

Canton, O., Pre.ss Club: 

T. K. .\lbaugh. Democrat, and Mrs. Judge .Albaugh. 

Milwaukee Ger.nlvn Press Club: 

Julius Muehle and wife. 

Baltimore Juurnallsts' Club: 

L. R. Meckins, \'ice-Presidcnt, and Mrs. Meekins : John S. Stillman, Baltimore 
American. 

\. E. \\\j.\ikn's Press Ass(ht.\ti()X, Boston: 

Mrs. Lulu S. I'pham, Gazette. 

l^.vcuTc NVoML.x's I-'ress Assoc la it ox, S.\x 1-"r.\ncisco : 

Miss a. E. Knapp, Mornin.; Call ; Mrs. E. T. V. Parkhurst, California Magazine. 



Pittsburgh Press Club: 

President T. J. Keenan, Jr., Press; Geo. H. Welshons, Times; Wm. H. 
Davis, Coiniiiercial Gazette; L. D. Bancroft, DispaUh. 
Guests — Mrs. Welshons, Mrs. Cameron, Miss Keenan. 

Philadelrhlx Press Club: 

T. Henry Martin, Itein, and wife. 

Reading Press Club: 

John B. Dampman. Herald, and wife. 

Syracuse Press Club: 

E. H. O'Hara, Herald : S. G. Laphain, of the Governing Board, Courier. 

Southern R, I. Press Club: 

Irving Watson, H. F. True, 

St. Paul Press Club: 

Julius A. Schmahi, News, joined at Chicago; C. H. Lineau, San Francisco. 

Nat'l Okg'n German-American Journalists and Authors: 

Arthur Koenig, Milwaukee, joined at Chicago ; M. Greenlilatt, San Francisco. 

Illinois Women's Press A.ssociation : 

Mrs. Frances E. Owens, Miss Belle L. Gorton, Miss Mary Allen West. 

Toledo Press Club: 

p. C. Boyle, Coiiniiei eial, wife and daughter; M. P. Murphy, Bee. 

San Franclsco Press Club : 

Hugh Hume, T. T. Williams, M. H. de Young. H. M. Tod, Theo. F. Bonnet. 

After the hurried farewells had been uttered, the train, at 
10.30 a. m., drew out from the depot, seven Wagner palace 
coaches bearing a hundred persons with hearts full of cheeriul 
anticipation, and leaving on the platform a large group of envying 
friends. The train, speciallv provided for this excursion, and the 
first of its kind that ever crossed the continent from Atlantic to 
Pacific, deserves detailed description, which will be given at a later 
period in this narrative. Of the journey to Chicago, that being 



an affair of every-day experience, little need be said, except that it 
was one of uninterrupted jollity. The view through the windows 
of the storm that raged continuously, and the fleeting glimpses of 
the snow-enveloped landscape, only served to heighten the sense of 
enjoyment as the luxuriously appointed Wagner palace cars were 
whirled smoothly and swiftly along the shores of the Hudson and 
Mohawk Rivers. At Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, guests and 
delegates from local clubs and remoter points joined the party. 
Canada was traversed in the night, but the steadily increasing force 
of the storm caused so great a delay that instead of reaching 




TlIK SPF.CIAI, WAGNER TRAIN CROSSING THE NIAGARA RIVER. 



Chicago at 9.45 on Thursday morning, as had been expected, it 
was after three o'clock in the afternoon when the train pulled up 
at that city. 

Chicago was found to be particularly windy that day, and, 
owing to the storm, it was also in a nebulous condition that 
effectually concealed it from view. A special train was in waiting, 
under charge of a committee representing the Chicago Press Club 
and the Exposition management, with Major Moses P. Handy in 
charge, and the newspaper guests were speedily whisked to the 
Exposition grounds, on the shore of Lake Michigan, where they 




THK WIVES OF THE NEW YORK DELEGATES. 



Mks. Chv^. W. Prre, Mu'.. William Hrrri, 

Mrs. T. H. Evans. Mrs. J. I. Chark.lis, Mrs. T. P, McElratii, 

Mrs. G. F. Lvon, Mrs. W. H. Worrall. 



receiv^ed a mass of valuable informatiun, vrrbally and in printed 
shape, regarding the majestic buildings which they were told were 
in progress of construction all around them. But of those building 
operations hardly anything could be seen — rain, snow, sleet and 
smoke effectually covering them — to the manifest chagrin of the 
local committee, who were indefatigable in their efforts to make 
amends for the shortcomings, or overdoings, of the elements. The 
unavoidable delay the travelers had experienced was disappoint- 
ing, not only on account of curtailing the projected visit to the 
city, but bv its interference with the arrangements that had been 
made for the party's entertainment by the committee. However, 
the only thing to do was to make tiie best of the situation and to 
see and learn as much as possible in the short time allowed them, 
and, accordingly, when the tour of the E.xposition grt)unds was 
reported to have been completed, the delegates were whirled by 
rail back to Chicago, and then by carriage to the Herald Building, 
where the editor and proprietor. Col. Scott, had an elegant 
luncheon waiting for them. After this repast, the first, by the 
way, of a long series of similar entertainments, the visitors pro- 
ceeded to inspect the splendid newspaper establishment in which 
they had received such a cordial welcome, beginning with the 
composing and stereotvping rooms on the sixth floor, antl ending 
with the press room in the basement. The general verdict was 
one of unqualifieil admiration, the building being, probably, as Col. 
Scott claimed, the most complete newspaper office in America, 
and therefore in the world. While still in the composing room, 
the proprietor addressed a few words of welcome to his guests, to 
which Air. Keenan responded in terms of appropriate compliment. 
The compositors of the office and the guests were attentive 
listeners. It was at this point that the speech-making feature of 
the journey received an impulse that kept it in active operation 




by day and night for the following twenty-four days, and across 
fully eight thousand miles of American soil. Mr. Keenan was 
followed by Dr. Bedloe, of Philadelphia, then recently returned on 
leave from his consular duties in Amoy, China, Miss Kate Field, 
of Washington, Mr. J. Seaver Page, of New York, Mrs. Frank 
Leslie-Wilde, Mr. William Wilde, of London, England, and 
Messrs. Berri, Evans, Wilder and Pearsall, of the New York 
Press Club. On parting with the hospitable host of the Herald 

the Chicago Press Club was visited. 
,,^^.: • - -^ Col. J. M. Bundy welcomed the party, 

expressing regret for the detention that 
had disarranged the Club's plans for enter- 
tainment, and urging a repetition of the 
visit under more propitious skies on the 
return Eastward. The president of the 
club, Wm. A. Taylor, in a few friendly 
words, wished the delegates a safe 
and pleasant journey to the Pacific 
slope and home again ; and brief addresses were likewise made 
by Messrs. Hall and Almy, of the Chicago Press Club, which 
were replied to by Messrs. Keenan and Foster Coates. The dele- 
gates were then invited to attend the theatres as guests of the 
Chicago Press Club, which some accepted, others preferring to 
while awav the evening at the Auditorium, where the annual 
Charity Ball was to be held. At 11.30 the cars were again 
taken. Mr. Roach, of the New York Central Railroad, was 
compelled to leave the party at this point in order to return to 
New \'ork. The circumstance caused general regret, but Mr. 
Roach's mantle fell gracefully upon the shoulders of General 
Western Passenger Agent W. B. Jerome, of the same company, 
who joined the party at Chicago and remained with it in charge 

25 



THE AUDITORIUM — CHICACO. 



of all railroad arrangements until the train reached Detroit on 
its return, twenty-three davs later. 

Friday morning found us speeding merrily along on the 
Chicago & North Western Railroad. The sky was grey and the 
sunshine had a chilled look, especially after one of the train hands 
had i)assed through the cars with the information that the mercury 
registered ten degrees below zero. We were now doing some 
fast traveling. The run of 503 miles from Chicago to Omaha 
was made in thirtv-five minutes less than the schedule time arranged 
for our special train, and was one of the very fastest ever made on 
that road. The country was a level treeless prairie ant! elicited 
great admiration from the tenderfeet of the excursion who had 
never been consciously before on a genuine prairie. The educa- 
tional feature of the journey was thus entered ujion at the rate 
of between thirty and forty miles an hour. The forenoon was 
passed by the ladies in the inter- 
change of various social and sociable ,„=« » - 
attentions, while the men for the 
most part devoted themselves to 
exploring and testing the \'aried re- 
sources of tlie luiffet car. At 2 v. M., 
after crossing the Missouri at ("ouneil 
Bluffs, the train [lulled up at < )maha, 
where a joint committee of the 
( )maha Board of Trade and the 
I'ress Cluli were in waiting at the 
dt'pot with carriages, and a few min- 
utes later, after escaping fidni a 

photograj)her's hands, the dt'lr^ates were standing in the sp;ieious 
court of the ()mahn /he oMkc. hstening to cheering words of wel- 
come from tile iiiteiprising owner of the establishment. Col. ICdward 

2(> 




mim 

JliBli . ^ i ^\fk fiiJMO S MJiliiiiJilM, - 




Tin-: (iMAiiA "hee" lu ilium;. 



Rosewater. The building in which we were entertained is claimed 
to cover more square feet of surface than any other newspaper 
edifice in the world, and it certainly is a splendid as well as a 
spacious establishment. It is built of granite, and is eight stories 
high, enclosing a large square court covered over with glass, thus 
insuring light to every apartment. From its lofty roof an extended 
view was obtained of the city, which impressed all who inspected it 
from that point as being the home of a remarkably enterprising and 
energetic people. Broad, well paved streets were lined with rows of 
magnificent structures, and traversed in all directions with cable and 
electric railroads. On every side were bustle and business activity. 
The welcoming addresses having been appropriately responded to by 
the travelers, the entire party were rapidly raised by elevator to 
the Press Club rooms on the upper floor of the building, where an 
hour was charmingly spent in conversation. A tidy lunch was served, 
to which ample justice was done, and the punch that washed it down 
is still fondly talked of by the New York delegates. At four o'clock 
we re-embarked and were under way again towards the Pacific. That 
evening on the train was marked by one of the characteristic incidents 
of the trip, a feature that probably had never before had its counter- 
l)art. After dinner Mr. J. C. Yager, of the Wagner Company, had 
the waiters remove all the tables from the dining ear and replace them 
with camp chairs, produced from some place of storage whose location 
was one of the many i)ermanent mysteries of the journey. Everybody 
thereupon repaired to that car and spent the evening in a most enjoy- 
able manner, listening to addresses and recitations by Mr. J. Seaver 
Page, Foster Coates, Marshall P. Wilder, Mr. Willie Wilde, and to 
some excellent vocalization, of which our musical leader, Pearsall, 
with the stentorian lungs, was the manager and conductor. 

What the visiting party did not learn concerning the City 
of Denver, the Queen City of the Plains, is not likely to be 

27 



acquired by newspaper writers of the present generation. By the 
admirable arrangements of the Committee of Reception an 
opportunity was afforded the Eastern travelers to do up that city 
in exhaustive style, or as nearly so as was practicable within the 
compass of a single day and evening. The train arrived at the 
Denver depot at 10.35 a. m. on Saturday, January gth, and the 
excursionists were welcomed by representatives of the local 
newspapers, the Chamber of Commerce, the Real Estate Exchange, 
and the railroad companies that center at that important city. 
The strong bond of interest existing between the manipulators of 
rates and traffics, pools, and short and long hauls, was shown by 
the warm interest taken in the excursionists by the railroad men. 
Among those who greeted the newcomers were General Ticket 
Agent Ady, of the Union Pacific ; S. K. Hooper, General 
Passenger Agent of the Rio Grande ; Assistant Passenger Agent 
Wadleigh, of the same line ; C. G. Burkhardt, of the North- 
western ; City Passenger Agent Erbb, of the Union Pacific ; 
Commodore Trufant, Superintendent of the Union Depot ; J. P. 
Flynn, C. H. Titus, Editor Arkins and others. Members of the 
Chamber of Commerce and the Denver Real Estate Exchangfe 
were: S. M. Allen, Biddle Reeves, R E. Gurley, B. L. Sholtz, 
John Crawford and L. M. Townsend, of the Interior Land and 
Improvement Company, an old newspaper man of New York. 
The Reception Committee had everything arranged on a broad 
scale for tiie visitors' entertainment. Carriages in ai)undance were 
in waiting at the depot and the guests were driven rapidly to the 
elegant Metropole Hotel. Two or three hours were given to the 
ladies to rest in the sumptuous apartments of that establishment, 
while their male escorts visited the newspaper offices and took 
in the sights generally, after which, fortified with a hearty lunch, 
the carriages were resumed and the procession wound its way 

28 




rilJ HOltL MEir ILIE — IkWlK 



through the long, level, unpaved, but smooth, well shaded and 
watered streets of Denver, and past all the noteworth}^ buildings, 
public and private, of that wonderful city, located in 1858 as a 

mining camp in a desolate prairie 
region just this side of the shadows 
of the Rocky Mountains, which loom 
up about fourteen miles to the West- 
ward. Some of the enormous smelting 
works on the outskirts of the city were 
also visited, and an insight was gained 
of the subtle processes by which rough 
ores are transmuted into precious metals. 
Dinner followed, after which the entire 
party visited the two theatres then in 
operation in the city, one at the 
Metropole Hotel and the other the 
splendid Tabor Grand Opera House, 
and at the termination of the performances they were transported 
back to their train, and at i a. m. were again speeding Westward, 
now on the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. 

Leaving Denver about i a. m., the train three hours later 
reached Colorado Springs, where, however, it stopped for only a 
few moments. It had been the expectation of the Pike's Peak 
Press Club and the Chamber of Commerce that the visitors 
would be permitted to remain there for a short time to be shown 
the sights of the locality, but the delay could not be afforded. 
However, copies of the morning papers were left on the train, 
and before the breakfast hour was over all the passengers were 
aware that they had passed through "the Sanitarium City of the 
West." A similar fact was impressed upon their minds at several 
other places they visited during the trip. 



29 



The ride from Denver was refreshing to exhausted humanity. 
Sight-seeing was ahxady beginning to pall upon the senses. When 
the party awoke on the morning of Sunday, January loth, they 
found themselves plunging into the very heart of the Rocky Mount- 
ains. At seven o'clock they were all routed out from their 
comfortable berths to inspect the wonderful jiathwav nature had 
riven through the rocky barrier that forms the continent's liack- 
bone, the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas, better known to tourists 
as the "Royal Gorge." Here, between majestic walls two 
thousand feet in height, wonderful engineering skill had contrived 
a roadwa\' that seemed to be carved for the special purpose through 
the solid rock. Gazing ujjwards to the opening in the rift, far 
overhead, that seemed to touch the heavens, one felt like 
exclaiming with the Psalmist: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 
and be ve lifted up, ve everlasting doors ; and the King of glory 
shall come in." At a point where the Arkansas I^iver is spanned 
i)y a bridge suspended by iron braces from the overhanging cliffs 
on either side, the train was halted, and the passengers were 
invited to step out into the freezing cold to be photographed 
l)V an artist whom Passenger Agent Jerome had enticed for that 
purpose from Denver. Their pictures being instantlv frozen fast 
tt) the negative, the i)art\' held a brief Service of Song, under 
the leadershi]) of Mr. Alfred E. Pearsall, of the New York 
Press Club, "Our (_)wn," as he is familiaily known by his associates 
in that organization, who, climbing to a giddy height on the rocky 
wall of the canyon, sang with power and sweetness "America," in 
which he was joined with vigorous earnestness by the entire 
party. Probai)ly that was the first Sabbath service ever held in 
that remote and hardly accessible chasm. Under way again, the 
train labored up a steep grade, seeking the crest of the Rocky 
Mountains. It found it, too, for at three in the afternoon 

3° 




THE PRESS CLUll I'ARTV STllI'l'lM', lO BE I'UOTOGKAl'UICl I IN THE 



HE CANYON UK THE ARKANSAS, SUNDAY, JANUARY lOTH. 



Leadville was rt-achcd, at an elevation of ten thousand, two 
hundred feet above the level of the sea, a fact which speedily 
made itself apparent to lunys with weak pumping power attach- 
ments. The visitors having heard much of that famous mining 
camp were deeph' interested in such portion of it as was not 
hidden from their view bv the deep snow. Several of the towns- 
people being at the depot with sleighs, an impromptu invitation 
was extended to the visitors to take a short ride, which was par- 
ticipated in with hilarious satisfaction. After leaving Leadville and 




GI.ENWllcin SPKINCS, col.o., WIIERK TIIF. I'RKSS I.KAllUF. I'ARTY ISATIIF.D IN A SM IW STORM, 

JAMARV lOTH, 1S92. 



surmounting the Rockv Mountains at Tennessee Pass, at an eleva- 
tion of ten thousand, four hundred and eighteen feet, the train 
resumed its rapid jjace on the down grade, and the run that 
afternoon through tiie sublime canvon of the (irand River was a 
most enjovable experience. Shortly after dark the train stopped at 




TUK CANYON OK THE liRAMJ, COLOKADo. 



Glen\V()t)d Spring;s. A blinding snowstorm i)revailed, through 
which tiif party was conveyed in sleighs alwut a quarter of a mile 
to a luxurious hotel, resplendent with electric lights, and furnished 
in the most approved style of modern artistic decoration. Here 
was enjoyed one of the most remarkable experiences of the 
entire journey. The hotel stands on the edge of a pool of 
steaming hot water sup]jlied from a mineral spring whose 
temperature is one hundred and twenty degrees, and its outpour 
two thousand gallons per minute. In the bathing pool at the 
house the temperature of the water is considerably reduced, and 
the gentlemen of the party, donning bathing suits, plunged in 
for a warm out-of-door bath, while the ladies on an ui)per 
balconv, protected bv umbrellas from the storm, threw snow-balls 
at the bathers. It really was a very remarkable sight. The night 
was inkv dark, the snow was falling almost in a single sheet, 
and the electric lights bareh' penetrated the misty atmosphere to 
reveal the heads of the men swimming in the steaming pool. 
Every now and then the snow and cold air combined would 
induce the bathers to whollv sid)merge themselves, but their heads 
would (|uicklv reappear and in a moment would be again incrusted 
with snow. Ihe pro|)rietor of the establishment and the |)hysieian 
resident there had given full assurances that bathing under those 
incongruous conditions was cntirelv harmless. The water was 
stronglv imi)regnate(l with salt and sulphur, and open air bathing 
is practiced there at all times of the day and in all seasons of 
the year. The participants in the batii, after resuming their 
traveling attire, found the effect to be rather exhilarating than 
otherwise, and none of them derived anv ill conse(|uence fiom 
what would in anv other place in the world seem to be a reckless 
defiance of hygiene and common sense. An hour and a half 
were most agreeably passed in visiting this remarkable point and 

34 



exploring, in spite of tiie darkness and storm, the medicina 
springs with which it is surrounded. Returning to the train the 
berths were sought at an early hour, excepting by a few of the 
more devoutly inclined, who sat up a while longer singing hymns. 
Thus was passed the first Sunday of the journey. Glenwood, we 
learned from our railroad companions, is situated in a " park " 
two thousand, two hundred feet above the sea-level, protected on 
every side by lofty mountains, and holding within its limits a 
series of hot sulphur springs bursting out of the mountain rocks 
forming lakes of large proportions, and making natural bathing 
places which by artificial means have been rendered very con- 
venient for the use of man. This hot sulphur water, used as a drink 
or to bathe in, has been found very efficacious as a remedy in many 
diseases, and the volume of water is so great that there seems to 
be no limit to the extent to which it may be utilized, or to the number 
of people who ma}^ partake of or be benefited by it. Above the 
springs, as they rush out of the rocks, are large open caves which, 
somewhere within their recesses, must have communication with 
the hot sulphur water below, as they are filled with hot 
sulphurous vapor or steam, which rushes out from their mouths 
in dense clouds. One may enter these caves, divest one's self of 
clothing, penetrate as far as the heat will allow, and partake 
of a natural hot sulphur vapor bath such as can be had nowhere 
else in the world, and which is claimed to be of great remedial or 
curative value for many complaints that the human frame is 
afflicted with. The Press League excursionists did not penetrate 
the mysteries of the locality further than the pools at the hotel. 
The region is said to be full of game, and the trout fishing 
superb, so every delegate in the party determined in his mind 
to wander out that way again, some time, at a more genial 
season of the year. 

35 



On Monday mornino^, January iith, Salt Lake was reached 
at elcyen o'clock. A delegation of officials, citizens and news- 
paper men from Salt Lake Cit)- met the party at Bingham 
Junction in a special train, under the charge of J. H. Bennett, 
General Passenger Agent of the Rit) Grande cS: Western Railroad. 
Some time preyious to the adycnt of these hospitable gentlemen 
there had been placed on the train, at a point one hundred 
and fifty miles east of Salt Lake City, copies of the Salt Lake 
City Hcra/d of that date, and cards of welcome, on which was 
recited the programme of the entertainment prepared for the 
passengers during their yisit in the City of Saints. On arriying 
at the deiK)t the yisitors were taken in carriages and stages and 
man\- in sleighs, as the snow was (piite deep and still falling, and 
were driven to the Knutsford Hotel, where a brief interyal was 
allowed them for resting in some of the three huncb-ed rooms 
which tliis fine hotel contains. The party was increased at this 
point b\' the addition to its numbers of Mrs. N'oung, a yery 
lively, Boston-looking young lad\% 

who enjo)'ed the double honor . 

of being the grantUdaughter of 
lirigham N'oung, deceased, and the 
diyoreed wife of one of that 
gentleman's sons. After the dust 
of travel had been remoyed, the 



\isUors were 



taken m earriapes 



G & fTolmes >v 4 



S»K,s^^^l^> 



S5Sii >■'■ '■'■ "' 
j„-S„-ii|,S.£[5,l:Sl! 






BK iJliH 



^S»SSs| 




\viii:ki: \\ i. ukkk r..Mi;ki ainkh in 
SALT I.AKK cnv. 



throughout the city and were 
shown all the attractions of the 
place, alighting onh' to yisit 
the Temi)le and the Tabernacle. 

Owing to the incomplete condition of the former, it was not con- 
sidered safe to enter it on the slipi)er\' planks that led 

36 




SOME OK THE BUII.DINCS AND LOCALITIES VISITED AND SEEN IN SALT LAKE CITY. 



from the sidewalks. This building is, next to the magnificent 
St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, the grandest and most costly 
ecclesiastical structure in the United States. Begun in 1853, it 
was said to have cost nearly seven million dollars when, on April 
6th, 1892, the last stone was laid, on the thirty-ninth anniversary 
of the laving of the corner stone. The edifice is two hunched 
feet long, a hundred feet wide and a hundred feet high, with four 
towers, one at each corner, two hundred and twenty feet in height. 
But figures give only an im])erfect suggestion of its great size. 
The walls are ten feet thick, and the massiveness and solidity of 
its construction insure its defiance of the ravages of time for ages 
to come. It is built wholly of snow-white granite, and, standing 
on one of the loftiest points in the cit3% it can be seen for many 
miles u|) and down the valley. The Temple is not intended to 
be a house of worship, but will be used wholly for conducting the 
ceremonial rites of the Mormon ))riesthood. The Tabernacle in 
the same square is one of the architectural curiosities of the world. 
It looks like a vast terrapin-back or half of a prodigious egg-shell 
cut in two lengthwise, and is built whoUv of glass, iron and 
stone. It is two hundred and fifty feet long, a hundred and fifty 
feet wide and a iiundred feet high in the center of the roof, which 
is a single mighty arch, unsupported by pillar or post, and is said 
to have but one counterpart on the globe. The walls are twelve 
feet thick, and there are twenty huge double doors for entrance 
and exit. In the same enclosure is still another spacious struc- 
ture, in which, we were informed, were held the regular church 
services of the Mormons. It is called Assembly Hall, is of white 
granite, of (lothic architecture and has seats for twentv-five 
hundred. The ceiling is elaborately frescoed with scenes from 
Mormon history, including the delivery of the golden plates, 
containing the New Revelation, to the Prophet Joseph Smith by 

38 



the Angel Moroni. The Hall contains a superb organ of native 
woods and iiome workmanship. The visitors received these facts 
on faith, as they did not enter the Hall. But the peculiar 
architectural features of the Tabernacle were thoroughly exploited, 
including the verification of that enormous structure's acoustic 
properties. The seating capacit}' of the building is said to be four- 
teen thousand. The visitors being stationed at the end furthest 
from the raised |ilatform where the vast organ stands, one of the 







ASS.lvMlil.\ MAI.l.. Illl, l.,l.l,U..A. I 1 



.. :U'.l,.M!i.. It.Ml'LL IN bVLl I AI,I 'IIV, 



local committee, enjoining silence, dropped a common pin from his 
hand on a board where he was stantling. The sound of that tiny 
piece of metal striking the board was distinctly heard by every 
person at the distant end of the apartment. Similar experiments 
were made by whispering across the room, the voice being in like 
manner as distinctly audible as is the case in the world renowned 
Whispering Gallery of St. Paul's Church in London. Leaving 
that interesting place, the guests were driven past the Tithing 

39 



House, the Beehive House and the Liun House, half hidden by 
the hiiih surrounding wall, the residenee of the late Brigham 
Voung, and tlie residenees of eighteen uf his numerous wives; 
experienee evitlentlv having shown liini that domestic felicity, when 
essayed in such off-hand fashion, et)uld only be approximately 
achieved by keeping his spouses in separate residences. The 
ladies of the i)artv manifested a decided interest in the evidences 
of the peculiar institution which has given Mormondom its 
notoriety, but they were wise enough to use great discretion in 
the in(|uiries they made of the gentlemen who acted as escorts on 
the occasion. On one point the entire party were unanimousl)' 
agreed, and that was in admiration of the beautv of Salt Lake 
City, its wide streets and its pieturesipie location in the mounlain- 
framed valley. The season of the year, however, was not pro- 
pitious to seeing Salt Lake City at its greatest advantage, and 
the guests were repeatedlv invited to come again later in the year, 
when, it was said, the whole city would bear the appearance of a 
luxuriant llower garden. The place is raj)idl\- i)eing transferred 
into Gentile hands, from those of the ^L)rmons, who founded it 
under Brigham \'oung in the summer of 1847. As is fitting to 
a city built in a vast wilderness, it was laitl out on a scale of 
majestic proportions, the streets being one hundretl and thirt\-two 
feet in width and the blocks comprising each ten square acres, the 
distance from street to street being ever\\vhere just six hundretl 
and si.\t\-six and two-tliirds feet. ( )n each side of every thorough- 
fare is a wide ditch of running water from the mountains — the 
irrigating system, that at great cost of labor and money converted 
the aiid waste on which the .Saints plantetl their settlement into 
a latter da\- Paradise. Lver\- house seems to be surrounded by 
a lawn and g.irdin or (jrchard. (kit il tlii.' bcLuUv ot the eit\", 
its possil)ilil\, ill fact, was due to Moinioii perseverance in tlie 



past, its present development is vviiolly owing to the spirit of 
modern progress which has actuated it under Gentile control 
within the last decade. Since 1880 the population has increased 
from twenty-one thousand to nearl\' fifty-five thousand persons, 
whose wealth per capita is said to he greater than that of any 
other comnnniity in the United States. Think of a town on the 
backbone of the continent possessing sixty-five miles of electric 
street railways ! 

Returning to the hospitable Knutsford Hotel, a fine lunch was 
partaken of, after which the visitors passed the time in looking 
around on their own account. The newspaper offices, the TrihiDie 
and the Herald, were visited in force. Many of the ladies 
repaired to their apartments to rest. Quite a number of the 
travelers, however, acce]ited an invitation from the Union Pacific 
Railroad to make a trij) in a special train to Garfield 15each to 
get a near-by view of .Salt Lake. I^ater in the day an excursion 
was also made to the recently discovered natural gas wells some 
miles out of the citv. It was so late in the day that it was dark 
when the wells were reached. The spectacle, however, was the 
more brilliant on that account, the Gas Company having run out 
a line of j)ipe from one of the wells, so that there were ilambeaux 
at various points along the path leading from the cars, the 
flames in some cases reaching to a height of fully fifty feet. The 
Pittsburgh visitors had an opportunity at this point of displaying 
their familiarity with natural gas, and had there been any Chicago 
representatives in the i)arty, they, too, might have enjoyed a 
similar i)rivilege. It was 7.45 v. m. when the excursion train of 
six cars returned to the city, and the passengers made a bee line 
from the depot to the Tabernacle, where a grand concert hatl 
been announced to be given for their special benefit. The Choral 
Society of Salt Lake City and the choir of the Tabernacle, 

41 



numl)crini; juinth' five hundred voices, officiated under the direction 
of Conductor Stephens. Prof. Radcliffe performed on the magnifi- 
cent organ, said to have cost $100,000 and to he the second 
largest in the world. It is fifty-eight feet high and contains two 
thousand six iiundred and forty-eight jjipes. A delightful 
programme was performed 1)\' the monster combination of local 
talent, and the visitors likewise took a hantl in the entertainment 
by pressing Mr. Pearsall into giving one of his excellent 
recitations, which was followed by Marshall P. Wilder, who 
amused the audience with a scries of droll anecdotes. 'this 
circumstance is the more significant from the fact that it was tiie 
first time that the Tabernacle had been lent to such purely 
secular uses as those represented bv the two gentlemen trom 
New York, and it was understood afterward that n'c had just 
anticipated the date when, by an edict of tiie rulers of the 
church, the edifice could never again be similarh' used. 

Messrs. Wilder and Pearsall were accordingly congratulated 
ujjon being personally concerned in an epoch in the ecclesiastical 
history of Mormondom. The wliole affair was exceedingl\- enjoy- 
able, outside of its qualified historic significance. Returning to the 
hotel, after an agreeable collation, a l)rillicUil reception was given 
to the visitors, which was participated in i)\- most ol the promi- 
nent citizens — Gentile and Mormon— of the place. The guests 
were gathered in a s])acious dining hall ol the hotel, and Judge 
O. W. Powers, of Illinois, who occupied the chair for the e\'en- 
ing, delivered a charming welcoming address. lie was followed 
by Gov. Thomas, after whom followed brief and telling addresses 
by the President of the League, Mi'. T. j. Keeiian ; Judge 
Goodwin, in behalf of the "Rocky Mountain i'ress"; Kate Field, 
in behalf of " Woman as a Business Man": the lion, (icorge O. 
Cannon, the distinguished Mormon leader, who, as a pioneer 

42 



printer, spoke for the "Hand-Cart Brigade"; Mr. Keeler, of 
Boston, in response to tiic toast, "The Salt Lake of the East"; 
the Hon. W. H. King, for "One of Utah's Best Crops"; 

Ex-Go V. West, as speeding 
the departing guests; Mr. 
Coates, of New York, on 
behalf of Press Clubs gen- 
erally, and Fred. Simon, on 
behalf of Utah in the con- 




MlbS KAJK FIELD, CJF W ASI 1 1 M, I i iN, 1) 




.MRS. FRANK LESLIE. 



Crete and abstract. In addition to 

the speeches of the evening, some 

charming vocalism was rendered by 

Miss Lillie Snyder; Mrs. Frank 

Leslie repeated a stirring poem on 

the onward progress of "Columbus"; 

a recitation was given by Miss Elita Proctor Otis, of New York, 

and a series of laughable stories were told by Marshall P. Wilder, 

who, with the recollection still strong on him of his performance 



43 



at the Temple, was in cheerful vein, and was repeatedly recalled to 
the frunt. The evening passed quickly in that delightful manner, 
and it was one o'clock in the morning when the party again found 
themselves on their train, speeding yet further westward towards 
the Pacific. 

Brief glimpses were obtained at intervals of the Great Salt 
Lake as the train swept along its southern shore, and at 3 a. m. 
on January 12th our hospitable hosts of the Rio Grande & 
Western Railroad were bidden a reluctant farewell as we were 
switched on to the Southern Pacific Railroad, in whose charge we 
were to remain for the following twelve days. The entire day 
was passed in overcoming the Sierra Nevadas, ami when evening 
arrived and we were being whirled through the canyons and the 
snow-sheds of that majestic range of mountains, the whole party 
were assembled in the dining car to listen to the reading of a 
"newspaper," the several contributions to which were prepared 
daring the day by some of the more enterprising of the delegates, 
under the editorial supervision of Mr. Foster Coates. It was the 
first evening paper ever brought out in that section of the conti- 
nent, and i)rt)bably nowhere else on the continent has a new 
journalistic enterprise ever made sucii rai)id headwa\'. The next 
morning fuund us in Auljurn, California. 




Chapter II. 

Convention Days. 

JANUARY 13-20, 1892. 

'p AUBURN we were suddenly introduced to 
California, and to say that our introduction was 
a revelation to the entire party would be far from 
exaggeration. Placer County, in which we now 
were, is called the "Gateway" to the Golden State. 
With the snowdrifts in full view around us and 
the Arctic cold of the Sierra Nevadas still fiesh in our 
memories, we seemed, on that warm, sunshiny morning, 
to have passed through the gateway that leads directly from 
perpetual winter to everlasting summer. Here, indeed, was the 
complete realization of the poet's ideal Auburn, 

"Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid. 
And parting summer's lingering blooms dela^'ed." 

The train passing through an immense arch of oranges and flowers 
drew up at a depot resplendent with floral decorations. Among 
a variety of devices the word "Welcome" greeted us above the 
platform, framed with golden oranges. The decorative possibilities 
of the orange were visible at nearly every house in the place. A 
committee of citizens was on hand with carriages, and the party 
was conveyed to two hotels, the Putnam and the Freeman House, 
where excellent breakfasts were discussed, which, as we had arisen 
from our Wagner couches at an unusually early hour, were 
particularly welcome. The champagne cocktails of native vintage 




45 



that were set before us as a preliminary to tlie meal might, under 
such circumstances, have prompted a responsive thrill in the heart 
of the most unmitigated apostle of Prohibition. But the magnificent 
flowers and the decorations of fruit with which the tables and 
apartments overflowed, were, next to the charming ladies 
who gave the grace of their presence to welcome us to 
California, the most 
striking features of that 
l)rilliant and memor- 
able morning. Break- 
fast finished, and two 
or three short greet- 
ings having been inter- 
changed b\' the orators 
on both sides, to car- 
riage again, to visit the 
Citrus Fair in "The 
Pavilion," a newly erec- 
ted theatre, where the 
reality of that land of 
sun and flowers, in 
which the fruit harvest 
reaches from January 
to December, was dis- 
played in a manner none of the visitors had ever dreamed of. 
Besides apples, pears and plums, in great abundance and variety, 
oranges, lemons, grapes, figs, dates, olives, almonds and other tropical 
fruits and products were massed about the luiilding in tasteful 
shapes and in vast quantities, the growth of that section of Northern 
California comprising ten counties which a few years ago were 
hardly known of as agriculturally capable. Thirty-six varieties of 

46 




SA< I;\MlMoS okvMjL AKLil Al ALBUKN, CAL. 



oranges, and six of lemons, all large, highl\r colored and well 
rounded fruit, constituted two only of the host of displays on 
exhibition there, that gladdened all the senses. Among the v^aried 
devices, a conspicuous one was a monster horn of plenty, made 
entirely of oranges, and pouring from its capacious mouth a 
stream of luscious fruits, the exhibit of Sutter County. 




OJK.NUCwl'IA <IK i)RAN(;ES — SUTTER CuUNTV .^ KXIllHll A I iHE AUUUK.N cnRUS lAlK. 



At Auburn, also, we discovered that we had reached the longi- 
tude of comparative magnitudes, a geographical jjceuliarily which we 
were not suffered to lose sight of while we remained on tiie 
Pacific slope. The precise relation of Placer County, California, 
in respect to size, to the State of Massachusetts, or to the whole 
of the eastern States, or to the rest of the earth, has escaped the 
writer's memory, but the proportion calculator had got us into 
his clutches, and we speedily learned to regard his fertility of 

47 



imagination and ingenuity of combination witii unspeakable awe. 
From the Pavilion we were driven to a point near the town 
named Aeolia Heights, where among trees and vineyards, on a 
commanding eminence. Col. VV. Hamilton, of Sacramento, has a 
charming lodge fitted with exquisite taste, and overlooking a vast 
wooded gorge, at the bottom of which runs the x\merican River. 
It was a landscape of unsurpassed loveliness. But we had not 
yet reached our destination, so at 10.30 a. m., after brief speech- 
making and cordial hand-shaking, we resumed our journey. 
Every member of the party will carry enduring recollection of 
the reluctance with which we partetl from the sweet, half-tropical 
vision that had l)een presented to our eyes that mnrning on our 
entrance into California. 

On reaching Auburn our train was increased i)y the addition 
of two remarkably well stocked cars containing a delegation 
headed by Mr. M. H. de Young, and comprising President Hugh 
Hume, Gen. John F. Sheehan and Gen. John S. McComb, with 
a large party of lively volunteers, sent to welcome us on behalf of 
the San Francisco Press Club. From that moment until we left 
San Francisco, one week afterward, we were in the hands of that 
Club as its guests, and never in newspaper history was royal 
hospitality more lavishly or more gracefully bestowed. The 
correctness of this statement will develop as we proceed. Stopi:)ing 
for an hour at Sacramento, we were greeted with a fresh 
surprise, the San Francisco newspapers of that date, particularly 
the Examiner and the Chronicle, having pre|)ared a welcome for 
us in the shape of special dispatches containing the latest news 
from the iiome of almost every member of the party. We 
arrived in San Francisco about four in the afternoon, and soon 
were snuglv ensconced in the Baldwin Hotel, where rooms iiail 
been bespoken for and assigned to us in athance. 

48 




SOME OF THE WOMEN DELEGATES AND GUESTS 
MKb. F. E. Owens. 

Mrs. J. P. Da.mi'Man 



MrS. El.RiiV AVEUV, 

MkS. LlI-U Ul'HAM, 

Miss Bovle, 



Mrs. J. Ml RULE. 

Mrss Belle L. Gorton. 
Miss Mary A. West, 
Mrs. p. C. Povle. 



VVc had reached the Pacific Cuasl. At this stage of the 
narrative the pen involuntarilv jjauses as niemorv recalls the 
succession of incidents upon whose description it is aliout to 
enter. The series of brilliant entertainments, such as were never 
before showered ujton a party of amazed visitors ; the beautiful 
scenery which they were invited to enjoy, the wonders of nature 
they were confronted with, the steady jump at which the\- were 
kept moving, the palatial residences at which they were welcomed, 
and, above and beyond all else, the magnificent friendliness with 
which they were greeted, coUectivelv and individuall}', by their 
big-hearted Californian hosts, would recpiire a volume to adecpiately 
relate, cUid woukl tax the powers of an abler writer than the 
present one to competently descrilte. To each member of the 
party who reads these pages there will doubtless recur many facts 
and incidents that dwell fondly in his memory as among the 
most enjo\'able of his experiences <in the trip, but of which he 
will find here no record. In some resjiects a narrative like this 
is like men's lives, the checkered fabric of whose careers is 
made up of threads of j)ersonal enenunler, which cross and 
recross each other in the weaving, but cdwa\"s i)reserve their 
separate identitv. It is the nearness together of the points of 
contact that imparts the character to the texture. So this sliort 
'story of travel must necessarily be traced along the line of the 
writer's personal observation of inciilents in which all particii)ated, 
but with differing points of joint experience. 

The first night in San Francisco was variously emplo\ed i)\' 
the visiting ])artv. The officers of the League and a lew s])ecially 
invitetl persons were entertained at a dinner part\' by Mi. Al. 
H. de \'oung, [irojjrietor of the San h'rancisco Chronulc, upon 
whom had eenteretl the unanimous determination ol the {".astern 
Press Club men and women as their selection for the next 

5° 



President of the League. That they were splendidly entertained 
needs no emphasis. Mr. de Young's residence is one of the 
many private palaces for which San Francisco is famous, and as 
the guests crossed the threshold they beheld a scene that each 
will long remember. The wide hall was hung with tapestries and 
adorned with marble statuettes on richly ornate pedestals, and with 
decorated vases holding palms and fragrant flowers, all glowing in 
the soft light shed by a myriad of gas jets gleaming through tinted 

shades. Over the doorway leading to 
the banquet room hung a white satin 
banner bearing in golden letters, these 
words of greeting : " With mystic key, 
our glorious State, unlocks for thee the 
Golden Gate." On the right of the arch 
was a branch of a giant redwood, and 
on the other side an orange bough 
laden with golden fruit, their junction 
over the arch being adorned with 
chrysanlhcmunis intermixed with ferns 
and tendrils of green bamboo. The 
dining-room was decorated with similar 
elegance, and at each guest's plate lay 
a card of unique design, l)earing his 
name in golden letters. The soft 
strains of a string band, hidden in 
some fern-curtained corner, made a 
mellifluous accompaniment to the clattering of knife and fork 
and glass as the ]iartv discussed the exquisite menu and 
off'ered their libations in wines of rarest vintage. At the close 
of the repast, Marshall P. Wilder set the fun in motion with 
some droll narratives, which were succeeded by brief and telling 

51 




THE CHKciMCLK DKlflCli, SAN I'KANLTSCD 



addresses by Mr. de Young, Mr. Hume, President of the San 
Francisco Press Club ; Messrs. Berri, Page and Coates, of New 
York; Mayor Sanderson, Gen. Ruger, U. S. A., and Mr. Hazelton, 
editor of the San Francisco PosL Then the guests were led to 
the unique apartment in the basement of Mr. de Young's house, 
known as the Chinese Room, where the}' were served with coffee 
and cigars. That room was one of the wonders of the trip. On 
every side were displayed rare specimens of cunning carving, while 
chairs and tables of costly wood and quaint design stood around in 
cozy attractiveness. The walls were embellished with Chinese masks 
and weapons, and on one side was a hideous idol, surmounted 
with a dragon, before which, doubtless, many generations of wor- 
shippers in China have bent their knees in adoration. The hangings 
of this strangely brilliant saloon, the mouldings and all the 
decorations and ornaments, were from the Celestial Kingdom, and 
their effect uj^on the visitors was weirdly impressive. There is no 
other similarlv adorned apartment in any residence in the United 
States. The partv i)roke uj) at a late hour and returned to the 
hotel, conversing in a strange patois of mi.xed Chinese and Ileidsick. 
The young men of the delegation were regaled that same evening 
at a "Late Watch" at the Press Club, where "high jinks" and 
"low jinks," and assorted provocatives of hilarity, were enjoyed 
until the early watches of the ne.xt da\- luul l)cgun. The convivial 
chairman of the Entertainment Committee, Mr. Gagan, with his 
ever courteous associates, Messrs. Lawrence, Denny and liarendt, 
and the omnipresent Hume, who had stolen away from the de 
Young banquet to join in welcommg the visitors, were indefat- 
igable in their fun-inspiring efforts, and even the bashful New 
York delegates were speedily thawed out from the icy reserve in 
which they are customarilv en\'cloi)e(l. Mr. Williams, of the Club, 
tendered to the League the freedom of the city, which Mayor 

52 



Sanderson afterward confirmed, with the further pledge that the 
police regulations would l)e suspended in San Francisco on their 
behalf throughout the Convention. It was possibly owing to this 
judicious municipal prevision that the League was enabled as an 
entire body to participate in the festivities of the following week. 
Mr. Bromley made an amusing speech, in the course of which he 
conferred upon the guests whatever portion of the city remained 
unbestowed ; and with songs, recitations and a variety of admirable 
musical performances, that memorable "Late Watch" was a very 
lively initiation into the ways of San Francisco journalists. 

Meanwhile, with greater prudence, the rest of the party had 
succumbed to the attractions of their luxurious apartments in "The 
Baldwin," and had retired betimes to enjoy the first night's repose 
in bed they had experienced since leaving home. These probably 
were the wisest of all, for no future opportunity for genuine all 
night rest was afforded during the entire journey. 

That there should be no doubt as to the hospitable intentions 
of their hosts, each of the visitors received at his apartment an 
elegant, vellum-bound Souvenir book, illustrated and exquisitely 
printed on heavy cream-laid paper, in which the San Francisco 
Press Club outlined the programme for the coming week. This 
programme, which was accurately adhered to, was introduced by the 
following words of welcome : 

Welcome, oh, delegates from the frozen East, from the crank- 
crowded purlieus of New York, from the city of the Lake, where 
no man dare wear whiskers, from the fever-haunted swamps of 
Indiana, from the blizzard-swept plains of Dakota, from the and 
deserts of Utah, where the thermometer ranges from forty-two 
below to one hundred and forty above in the shade, from the 
cattle trails of Nebraska, from the pork-laden plains of Ohio, 
from the sage-brush of Nevada, where the voice of the jack-rabbit 
is heard in the land and the coyote is the king of beasts — 
welcome, thrice welcome, to California ! ! ! 

53 



Welcome, oh, welcome, men of the East, North and South, 
and ten times welcome, ladies from the lands on the thither side 
of the Sierra Nevadas ! Welcome to California, where the noise 
of the flowers growing in January is like unto the roar of an 
avalanche, and strawberries are in season all the year round ; 
where the climate is sold l)y the acre and land by the quart ; and 
where you can wear a linen duster in winter and a i)lanket in 
summer — if you wish to. 

We are here to bid you welcome. Come into the hacienda and 
partake of frijoles ; tie your horses to the com bin and let them 
eat ; throw your guns and knives into the corner, for you are 
among friends. All that we have is yours ; would that we had 
more. 

Welcome, a hundred times welcome, oh, ladies from the lands 
where the violet does not bloom until the end of s])ring, and the 
only orange blossoms to be found are on tiie heads of the brides ! 
All California bids you welcome. The tall redwoods of the forest 
will bow to the ground as you pass by, the grizzly bears and the 
lions will sing serenades beneath your windows, and the rivers 
will leave their beds at a moment's notice to make things pleasant 
for you. Welcome, a thousand welcomes, oh, delegates and friends ! 
The whole Pacific coast is waiting to do you honor. The salmon 
has left his home in the mighty Columbia to sit with you at the 
feast ; and his voung companion, the shrimp, will be at his side. 
The juicv canvas-l)ack, lov^ely of plumage and mightv of pinion, 
will contribute to 3'our happiness; and the effusion of the grape 
from a hundred sun-kissed Californian hillsides shall tlow in your 
honor. 

The country is all vours. From the snow-capped Shasta in 
the North to the tropic verges of Los .Vngeles and Santa Barbara; 
from the lava beds of Modoc to the burning sands of Arizona ; 
from Mount Whitney to Mount Diablo ; in short, " from the 
Siskiyou to San Diego, from the .Sierras to the sea," you shall 
roam where you please, take what you please, and do what you 
please. For this occasion the San Francisco Press Clul) owns 
the earth and places it at vour feet. 

Would you bathe in the warm waters of Del Monte ; speed 
behind the fastest horses of Palo Alto ; drink drv the breweries 
or drain tiie mighty vat of \"ina — do so ; tliev are all at vour 
service. The loveliest ladies of our land shall smile on your 

54 



braves, and the bravest men kneel at the feet of your fair ones. 
The land is yours, and, in the language of the postmaster's poet, 
"if you don't see what you want, please ask for it." 

The roses are growing in the vales for you, and the early 
asparagus has pushed his head through the earth to peep at the 
procession. We have warm hearts and cold bottles at your 
service. You have come out of the wilderness into the Garden 
of Eden, and there is no reservation on the apples. The breeze 
will blow from the West while you are with us, and if you smile, 
our generous earth will crack its sides till you think you have met 
a Californian Earthquake. 

California is nine hundred miles long and from one hundred 
and thirty-eight to one hundred and forty miles wide, and embodies 
all that is best of the entire globe in that compass. Sample the 
goods that the gods have given us ; reform, and become a Call- 
fornian. All the zones are here — torrid, frigid and temperate — 
within a half day's journey of each other, and ozone in every one 
of them ; so that fondness for previous conditions of existence 
can form no excuse. 

Welcome, again ! 

The visitors were also presented with handsome silver buttons, 
artistic syml)ols of close attachment, having engraved on one side 
the sun setting in the Pacific and on the reverse the words 
" International League of Press Clubs, San Francisco." From 
that time forward the Eastern guests when they fancied a want 
was unsatisfied, had only to press the button — the San Francisco 
Press Club "did the rest." 

Thursday, January 14th, was a bright, sunshiny day, with a 
warmth suggestive of the latter part of May in New York. It had 
been the intention to hokl a session of the Convention in the fore- 
noon, but that plan was unanimously and perhaps somewhat vocifer- 
ously abandoned when llie local committee announced that carriages 
were in wailinu' to take the excursionists to Sutro Heights, to 
view the famous Golden Gate. The fact began to dawn upon 
our excited minds that we had traveled four thousand miles on 

55 




false pretenses. While we had been pretending all the \va\' across 
the continent that we were going to California purel\' on Press 
Club business of weighty moment, we really were bent on sight- 
seeing and enjoyment. It is only fair to state that this view of the 
case was not entertained, even secretl\-, by any one of the Eastern 
visitors, until it was forced upon their consciences by their San 
Francisco hosts. Nevertheless, much Con- 
vention business was transacted before we 
left San Francisco — but it was no fault of 
our entertainers that we were allowed to 
attend to it. Surreptitious advantage was 
taken of their unguarded mcjments — of very 
infre(|uent occurrence — when a slight lull 
happenetl in the torrent of entertainnienl, 
to sneak in an hour or so, and once even 
a whole forenoon, of real work. (It seems 
now, on deliberate reflection, to have been 
rather unfair conduct on our |)art towards 

those who treated us throughout with such frank open-handedness. ) 
This jxirenthesis is necessary to e.\])lain how we happened to go 
to .Sutro Park that morning, insteail of following the programme 
announced 1>\' the (ioverning Board before we left Xew York. 
It is no spirit of vanity that impels the assertion that we i)resented 
a splendid ajijiearance as we rode through and around San Francisco 
that morning, for it is only a surmise on the writer's part, based 
upon the attention the procession evervwhere attracted. Some 
were in coaches, some in commodious stages and some contented 
themselves on the top of a tally-ho, whose four spirited horses were 
"tooled" by no less a personage than our host, "Lucky Baldwin," 
to whom the turnout belonged. After climbing some of the seven 
hills on which San Francisco, like Rome, is founded, we were driven 

56 



AUciLl'll SL'TRl). 




GOLDEN (;ATE KROM THE TERRACE AT 
SUTRO HEIGHTS. 



through the beautiful Golden Gate Park, where our hosts 
informed us "there are no keep-off-the-grass signs, and where the 
whole population has room to breathe. In June or December, 

winter or summer, there are acres of 
flowers and all out of doors. The 
deer have a valley to themselves, the 
buffalo have a whole hillside. One 
part of the Park is for the children 
alone. There are hills and meadows, 
thick woods and beautiful lawns, 
miles of glorious drives and shady 
walks. The Park extends to the 
ocean beach, where the billows of the great Pacific ceaselessly break 
and roar." All this we verified, and enjoyed immensely. An hour 
was spent inspecting the manifold beauties of the Conservatory, 
where a dav would have been too short a time for making a perfect 
examination, and, finally, down a steep hill and up a steeper one, 
and we entered the beautiful grounds belonging to Adolph Sutro, of 
Nevada silver mining and Comstock tunnel fame. Just before 
arriving, we were met bv Mr. Sutro himself, mounted on a spirited 
thoroughbred, which he rode with 
dignified grace, who escorted us 
around the winding roads, amid 
groves and flower beds and statuary, 
to the Cliff House. There we found 
ourselves face to face with the 
Golden Gate, with the Pacific Ocean 
spreading its vast expanse before us, 
shimmering almost without a ripple 

in the brilliant sunshine. Near at hand were the famous Seal Rocks, 
covered with hundreds of those curious phocids, with the bland 




SEAL ROCKS SEEN FROM SITRO HEIGHTS. 



57 



countenances of statesmen and the slippery habits of poHticians, 
sunning themselves in affectionate groups as they harked their 
welcome to the visitors. A detailed inspection was made of the 
princely domain, which Mr. Sutro has transformed from a sand- 
hill into a Golden State Eden by the exercise of the same 
Californian magic as that with which he had raised himself from 
poverty to cons|)icuous wealth, after which lunch was served on 




LUNCiltDN ON IIIK I'llKllI nV iilK sUTKu RliSIUli.NCH, JAMAUY I4III, IO92. 



the porch of the Sutro residence, where two long tables were laid, 
whose onlv shelter was an awning for protection from the sun. 
This e,\([uisite repast, partaken of amid ripening fi'uits and 
blooming llowers itn the shore of the Pacific ( )ccan in the open 
air in januarw was the forerunner of man\' contrasts with home 
experiences which the \isitors were alxiLU to lia\'e brought to 
their attention. Xo subse(|LuiU occasion on the enlin' journe\' 

58 



weakened the deep impression of that elegant entertainment or in 
any degree conflicted with the agreeable remembrances that were 
imparted by the brilliant spectacle of a winter out-door festivity, 
where all the attributes of wealth, hospitality, beauty, intellect 
and nature's most charming aspects were so skilfully and so 
harmoniously blended. 

Fully two hours were occupied in discussing the lunch, the 
menu being contrived of dishes peculiar to the California region, 
seasoned with wines and fruits of native growth. A few short 
speeches succeeded the repast, Mr. Sutro leading in words of 
cordial greetino;, followed bv Messrs. Berri, Welshons and Paee. 
At three o'clock the party broke up and the visitors were driven 
back to San Francisco, past the Golden Gate and through the 

entire breadth of the beautiful military 
reservation of the Presidio. Late in 
the afternoon the opening session of 
the Convention was held in the Press 
Club rooms in Pine Street, and in the 
evening a brilliant reception was held 
at the same place, which was graced 
by the presence of the leading repre- 
sentatives of San Francisco's social 
worth and feminine beauty. The handsome clulj rooms were 
charmingly arrayed for the occasion, the walls being hung with paint- 
ings and decorated with tasteful adornments. \"ases of palms and 
ferns were artisticalh' disposed, the deep green of their spreading 
leaves making a reposeful background to the brilliant kaleidoscopic 
effects of color that gleamed and fluttered on the floors in 
constantly changing combinations. 

The effect was in everv wav charming' to the senses. During 
the evening an excellent musical programme by several prominent 

59 




MR. SUTRO S AQ'uARIL'M .\NI) HATHS 
AT THIi CLIFF HOUSF. 



artists was rendered. The visitors in whose honor the entertain- 
ment was given were overwhelmed with attentions, their hosts leaving 
nothing undone that graceful hospitality, coupled with considerate 
forethought and controlled bv cultured taste, could devise for their 
gratification. It was on this evening that the Eastern party arrived 
at the unanimous conclusion, which was reiterated daily during their 
stay in California, that the immediate occasion, whenever and wher- 
ever it occurred, was the most delightful e.\])erience of the whole 
journey. When enjoyment is thus steadily and progressively aug- 
mented, how inadequately weak words are to give it proportionate 
expression. It is, of course, impracticable within the scope of the 
present narrative to enter into minute details of what was done 
and who did it, or what was said and who said it, or what was 
seen and who provided it, at all the enjoyable gatherings which 
greeted the travelers along their route. Something must be left to 
the reader's imagination, and even that flexible facultv may be 
vigorously strained and 3'et not stretch to the full gauge of the 
subject. The San Francisco Press Club reccjition, however, 
possessed a special interest, as, excepting the committee who had 
received us at Auburn, it was the first time that we had been 
brought collectively into personal communication with the 
gentlemen of whose hospitalities we were partaking. To the 
visitors, at least, the relationship thus set on foot was most 
ajTreeable. The entertainment had an additional attractiveness in 
the introduction it afforded us to a brilliant element of San 
Francisco society. The bar, the bench, the pulpit and the armv 
were all conspicuously represented, besides the leading lights of 
the city's literary and artistic circles, and as to the ladies there 
present, suffice it to say that thev were in everv respect charming 
and attractive. Press Club entertainments of that order are not 
often witnessed in anv citv. 

60 



The morning of Friday, January 15th, was ushered in by 
rosy-fingered Aurora with the brilliancy of its predecessor for the 
special delectation of the Eastern visitors. The Pacific newspaper 
men must have made some special arrangement with the weather 
bureau, for although according to the almanac the rainy season 
was at its height, the rains ceased to fall on the day before the 
Wagner train arrived at Auburn, and sunshine prevailed constantly 
while the party remained in California. This second day was spent 
on the water, visiting by special steamer, the " Relief," the points of 
interest that skirt the beautiful Bay of San Francisco. A number 
of ladies and gentlemen from the city accompanied the party, and a 
fine brass band lent its melody to the every way delightful trip. 
The Union Iron Works, on Mare Island, where, under the conduct 

of Mr. Irving M. Scott, several Gov- 
ernment war vessels, including the 
"Monterey" and the "California," 
were in process of construction, were 
thoroughly inspected, and the excur- 
sionists were then taken around Fort 
Point and through the Golden Gate 
to the Seal Rocks, which they had 
viewed on the previous day from the 
beautiful terraces of the Sutro domain. The progress of the tug 
through the harbor was greeted by the dipping of flags and firing 
of guns by the vessels it passed. Thence the boat steamed to lovely 
Sausalito, where the voyagers were regaled with a sparkling luncheon 
at the quarters of the Pacific Yacht Club. This repast, apart from 
its own intrinsic merits, was noteworthy as being the one and only 
one public meal partaken of by the travelers during the month of 
January, 1892, at which no speeches were permitted. The orators 
of the party bore their deprivation with reasonably good grace, 

61 




THE GOLDEN GA I K Al Fc.iRT POINT. 



and the listening element did not seem to have their appetites 
seriously affected by the omission. About three o'clock the 
return trip began and the steamer visited San Pablo Bay and 
passed through Roccoon Straits, heading about for home on 
arrivmg at Red Rock. It was five o'clock when the lines were 
made fast to the Clay street pier. Some of the party hastened 
to the Palace Hotel, where a reception was being given to the 
Eastern ladies under the auspices of the Pacific Women's Press Club. 
The guests were cordially received and most handsomeh' enter- 
tained in exquisitely decorated apartments by a committee of ladies, 
conspicuous among whom were Mrs. de Young, Mrs. Hugh Hume, 
Mrs. Townsend, Mrs. Frona E. Wait, Mrs. Christien and Mrs. 
Black. By the delegates the remainder of the day until late 
dinner time was devoted to the affairs of the Convention. As this 
narrative, however, relates exclusively to the business activities that 
marked the journey, no note is taken of the occasional hours of 
relaxation enjoyed in Convention diversions. Those agreeable 
episodes are duly recorded in Secretar}' Price's Report, where, also, 
are described, with official elegance, various fascinating accompani- 
ments of the Convention, including the first half of the "Open 
Session" that was held that evening at the Powell Street Opera House, 
the unrecorded second part being a midnight inspection of " China- 
town " by the visitors, who explored that unsavory celestial colony 
in the heart of San Francisco in several detachments, each under 
the guidance of a detective officer. It is not essential to go into 
detail regarding what was seen and smelled that night. The list 
would comprise highbinders, joss houses, fruit venders, theatres, tea 
stores, opium joints, lodging houses and subterranean dives, ranging 
in elegance from the pretentious temples, with their gilded and 
carved ornaments, to the underground places of abode whose 
chief advertisement was an all-pervading, insinuating, soul-crushing 

62 




A GROUP OF DELEGATES FROM EAST AND WEST. 



M. P. iMuRrHY, Julius Miehle, 

P. C. Boyle, 

Dr. Fkiederich, J. P. Damjman, 



Julius Schmal, 



T. Henry Martin. 



and utterly indescribable stencii. If the two and seventy several 
and well-defined stenches which Coleridge analyzed in the city of 
Cologne could be combined and concentrated into one vaporous 
fusion, the result would be a savory suggestion of Araby the Blest 
in comparison with the fetid effluvium in which the home life of 
San Francisco Chinatown is perpetuallv immersed. With the 
understanding imparted by the guides that there were yet lower 
degrees of filthiness in the Chinese section than had been 
exhibited, the satiated visitors, with unanimous impulse, determined 
to return to the hotel. The record of that evening would be 
incomplete without mention of the entertainment given by the 
German Press Clul) to the Fatherland's contingent of the League 
delegation. The affair was informal and jolly — " Ganz famos" 
as one of the party declared the next day. Speeches were made, 
songs were sung, reminiscences were exchanged, and beer — and 
that onlv — was drunk, and the hour iiand was reaching out 
vigorously toward the time for another day to dawn when, with 
cordial "Adc: An/ WicderschcnJ' and earnest handshakes, the 
party broke up. 

On Saturday, January i6th, everybody was routed out at an 
uncomfortably earlv hour, considering that none had retired until 
lonir after one in the morning. But our hosts were inexorable. 
Indications were beginning to manifest themselves on the part of 
the visitors of a disposition to settle permanently in San I-'rancisco, 
and it was indispensable that they shouUl be remo\'ed from the 
place before the complaint became chronic. Accordingly, at eight 
o'clock a special train furnished by the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company steamed out from San Francisco with two hundred 
passengers on board, bound for a three days' excursion to 
Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Jose. The writer of these pages 
was especially gratified by the companionship on this excursion 

64 



of an esteemed friend, Mr. Arpad Haraszthy, the well known 
viticulturist, whose extensive wine cellars are prominent objects of 
interest in San Francisco, and to whom he was indebted for 
repeated courtesies during his stay in that city. It was a 
charming day as the train rattled along the shore of the beautiful 
Bay and afterward through the fertile Santa Clara Valley, whose 
abundant vegetation, already far progressed towards rij)ening, 
made the frozen fields of the East, so lately traversed, seem 
immeasurably distant. The first stop was at Menlo Park and 
the Palo Alto stock farm of Senator Leland Stanford, where the 
party disembarked and were shown the equine treasures of the 
farm, including the famous stallion, Palo Alto, the champion 
trotter of the world, of fabulous value, but fated to die from 
pneumonia a few months later. After visiting the training track 
and witnessing how the young animals are broken to their gait, 
carriages were taken to the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, the 
grandest monument to paternal affection in existence, and destined 
to become one of the leading educational institutions in the world. 
President Jordan received the party with a hearty welcome and 
escorted them through the grounds and buildings. This institution 
was founded bv Senator Stanford, of California, in memory of 
his only son, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died a few years ago 
while pursuing his education abroad. The total present endow- 
ment is estimated at $20,000,000, which includes twenty thousand 
acres of the land surrounding it. The preliminary buildings had 
recently been completed at the time of our visit and the 
universitv opened with over four hundred students on its rolls. 
The set of buildings wiiich we saw in use are in the form of a 
large quadrangle, surrounded by one-story structures of dove- 
colored stone, which, on the inner side facing the quadrangle have 
cloistered porches, extending all around and broken by handsome 

65 



arches that serve for entrances to the inner court. The buildings 
aheady erected form the nucleus for a city of schools which it is 
expected will extend for several miles. Already there were in 




'T'>MMV ' EVANS, THE VHUNGEST IIELEGATE IN THE I'AK 1 V. 



them a large number of regular departments of the university, 
laboratories, lecture rooms, lil)raries, workshops, etc., in full 
operation. 

Again we were speeding in the cars past farms and vineyards, 

00 







THh: HOTEL DEL MoNTK AND ITS SUKKOUMJINllS. 



through the smiHng Santa Chira \'alley, until at one o'clock 
the train arrived at Monterey, and, after passing through a 
handsome park-like grove, the magnificent Hotel Del Monte, encom- 
passed by one hundred and thirty acres of forest and garden, 
opened its hospitable doors, and the realm of fairyland was 
entered. Here, in mid-January, in a wilderness of flowers and 
verdure, surrounded by a vast wooded park, in which are embodied 
all the exquisite possibilities of skillful landscape gardening, near 
the shores of a bay as blue as that of Naples, stood a palace, a 
masterwork of artistic taste, the culmination of refinement and 
luxury. The whole scene was like a realization of a delightful 
vision of the imagination. The soft, reposeful charm of Monterey 
Bay has received expression in the following lines published in 
the Calif o)-iiia Magazine : 

On sea-washed rocks a dainty lichen grows ; 

Back from the shore are lofty cypress trees ; 

And in the waves the frail anemones 
Softly their purple fringes ope and close. 
A lonely gull on slow wing seaward goes ; 

A shallop drifts before the freshening breeze ; 

P'ull are the lingering hours of calm and ease ; 
Full is the soul, world-weary, of repose. 

The wind is singing to the monotone 

Of the deep tides; and singing in the pines. 
Through whose soft waving foliage lightly shines 

The sun on silver beaches as it shone 

Twelve decades past, when from the branches swung 
The Mission bells that Junipero hung. 

Monterey is one of the quaintest and most interesting places 
in California. Located by its Si)anish discoverer, \'izcalno, in 
1602, it was here that nearly two centuries later the old Mission 

08 



Fathers first established themselves, and their little cluster of adobe 
houses, and the churches in which they ministered to their savage 
flocks, still stand on the shore of the bay, facing the Pacific 
Ocean, dreamy reminders of the days of Junipero Serra, when 
the king of Spain yet claimed that region as ])art of his domain. 
A granite statue marks the spot where Padre Junipero landed in 
1770, and not far distant, in strange historic contrast, are the ruins 
of Fremont's Fort, where, in 1847, the "Pathfinder" first raised 
the bear-emblazoned flag, when the golden State was wrested 
from Mexico. The experiences of that afternoon will never be 
forgotten. The delightful ride of eighteen miles to wave-dashed 
Cypress Point, along broad, smooth avenues, now skirting the 
very water's edge, now passing through dense pine and live oak 
forests, or traversing the California Chautauqua, Pacific Grove, 
or through quaint settlements of Chinese fishermen, then bringing 
up by the sea shore at an abrupt point, beyontl whicli are ledges 
of rocks covered with seals, is, beyond any question, one of the 
grandest drives in the world. At one point it passes through 
a grove of singular trees, found only in one other place on earth. 
They are cedars of Lebanon, the original slips of which were said 
to have been brought from the Holy Land by the Jesuit Fathers. 
Apparently twisted and wrenched by time and tempest, they 
present a curious appearance, with their short, gnarled trunks, 
surmounted by spreading masses of dark green foliage so flattened 
down as to be impervious to sunshine or rain. {3nly in Dore's 
pictures are such trees elsewhere seen. After the drive, the 
welcome banquet, and then a restful interval, followed bv a lively 
ball, the first magical suggestion of which dispelled the weariness 
with which, down to that moment, the feminine element of the 
party had been nearly overcome. And that lovely evening! Mid- 
winter though it was, the air was soft and balmy, and redolent 

O9 



with the delicious odors of a myriad beds of flowers. A mild 
zephyr from the Pacific imparted a tremulous motion to the 
everywhere overhanging foliage, through which the rays of the 
moon quivered and flickered in fitful Hashes to the earth. Nature's 
repose is her most inviting aspect. The temptation for a mid- 
night stroll was irresistible, and, too, the lights in the Club House 
near by beamed with such hospitable suggestion ! 

Early on Sunday morning we reluctantly left Monterey, 
feeling, as we felt at departing from each place we visited, that 
the glory of the journey was over, and that the future had little 
to offer in comparison with past enjoyments — a feeling, by the 
wav, which evaporated with corresponding regularity within thirty 
minutes after each place had passed from sight. Arriving in two 
hours at Santa Cruz, we were driven out to what some called the 
Natural I3ridge, where we found 
a seaside observatory on a rocky 

point at the end of a cable road, ^^ _ 

and where we were regaled with 
grapes and wine, besides which 
some enthusiasts claimed to have 
had a momentary sight of a 
veritable Pacific Ocean whale, 
"spouting" in the sea. (Jn our 
return to the town we were 
transferred to a narrow gauge 
i)rancb of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, and in the course of 
half an hour's climb up the 
Santa Cruz Mountains wc were 

at "Big Tree Station," inspecting with great satisfaction a grove 
of colossal redwood forest monarchs. These are not the famous 




IISRKVAI I'HV Al i:lE NAUKAL liKlDCU'., 
SANTA CRIV.. 



7° 



'• big trees " of Calaveras and Mariposa, but they are plenty big 
enough to justify the name they bear and to be entitled to fame 
on their own account, one specimen having a diameter of twenty 
feet and an alleged height of over three hundred. As Emerson 
says, "they have a monstrous talent for being tall." They belong 
to the species sequoia scvipcrvire)is, and, like their larger cousins, 
the sequoia gigantea, of the Sierra Nevadas, they are regarded 
by scientific know-alls as sur\'ivals of a period of the world's 
history when, with the prevalence of a more humid atmosphere 
than now obtains, they were widely distributed, the fossil remains 
of some of them having been found as far north as the frozen 
soil of Greenland. The name Sequoia was that of an ingenious 
Cherokee Indian, who invented the Cherokee alphaljet, and it was 
bestowed upon the- Californian redwood liy a German botanist, 
Endlicher, in 1847, about five years before the Calaveras grove 
was discovered. But the redwood is a favorite tree in California, 
being admirably adapted for cabinet work and general building 
purposes, and these majestic relics of an uncertain antiquity are 
rapidly disappearing before a foe more promptly destructive than 
the diminishing humidity of the atmosphere. The big redwood 
grove near Santa Cruz is justly regarded as one of the most 
interesting features of that picturesque coast range region. One 
veteran, whose trunk near the earth has been hollowed out bv 
fire, would give comfortable standing room to fully thirty persons 
in its charred interior, and there are others in the grove yet 
larger. Having bestowed due admiration upon the big trees^ 
we speeded on to San Jose, the capital of Santa Clara County, 
where we were received with enthusiastic welcome by a committee 
of citizens, who escorted us in fine style to most agreeable quarters 
in the handsome hostelrv, the Hotel \'endome, which was 
gorgeously decorated with liowers in our honor, Luncheon was 

7i 



succeeded bv^ a processional drive tiirough the city and its suburbs, 
which we found resplendent with Queen Anne cottages and other 
tasteful residences, surrounded with fine lawns and well tended 



^3 




/-^- *'-■ ' . --W lilt. , . .1 




Till-. I.ICK OHSKRVATiiRY UN Miil'M HAMII.KIN, NICAU SAN JOSE, CAL. 



orchards. Altogether, San jose gave the impression of a suc- 
cessful little citv, in which modern ideas of thrift and architecture 
are rapidl\- replacing the crudeness of earlier days. The broad 



72 



streets are traversed by electric railways and are made attractive 
to the sight by the frequent occurrence of open squares abounding 
in ornamental palms. After a view of the old Mission Church 
and a visit to the rooms of the Board of Trade and other 
prominent places of interest, we returned at dusk to the Vendome 
to prepare for the evening's banquet, which proved to be a 
genuinely elegant affair. The entertainment wound up with a con- 
cert in the music hall of the hotel, and al)out midnight the travelers 
eagerly sought their apartments, thoroughly worn out with the 
labors of that busily occupied Sabbath. The day had been spent 
in verdant forests and amid blooming flowers. Just one week 
previous we had been sleighing at Leadville and bathing in a 
blinding snowstorm in the hot pool at Glenwood, Colorado. It 
was difficult to bring one's mind to a realizing sense of the 
striking experiences we had passed through in that short interval 
of time. 

The next morning showed the Eastern party to be somewhat 
divided in i)urpose. They were universally agreed, however, that 
it was necessary to wire their home offices at once for a fresh 
supply of adjectives expressive of admiration, the stock with 
which they started having been completely exhausted. A large 
number set out at seven o'clock in carriages for a mountain 
climb of twenty-eight miles, to visit the Lick Observatory, on 
Mount Hamilton, escorted by the Mayor and a special committee. 
The others, contenting themselves with a distant sight of the 
Observatory, where 

■' On yon peak against the cloudless sky, 

" The guarding eye of science reads the deep," 

in full view from the city, saved themselves the labor of the 
mountain ascent, and returned to San Francisco in the early 

73 



forenoon. The party who made the Mount Hamilton trip had 
a glorious ride. The atmosphere was transparently clear, and 
the beauties of the Santa Clara X'alley were unfolded in all their 
glory of verdant undulation, as the spirited, four-horse teams 
speeded along the winding road that connects the low land with 
the clouds. Mayor Rucker, of San Jose, the indefatigable Charles 
Shortridge, editor of the San Jose Mercury, and their associate 
committeemen, in collusion with the \'endome Hotel management, 
had sent a corps of waiters in advance with the material for a 
roluist lunch, which was attacked and successfully overcome at 
Smith's Creek, a few miles below the summit of the mountain. 
About one o'clock, at an altitude of 4,400 feet, the great Observatory 
was reached, and the travelers at once laid aside all concern 
for earthlv matters. Peering through a twelve-inch telescope, a 
twinkling light was indicated to them as the star Vega, many 
million miles more distant from them than the sun ; so far away, 
indeed, that it requires sixteen years for a wave of its light to be 
transmitted to the earth. The contemplation of this mysteriously 
remote orb giving rise to uneomft)rtable suggestions as to the 
distance that intervened between them and heaven, they turned for 
comfort to the great instrument sixty feet long, with a thirty-six 
inch lens, that showed them Venus, which their educated minds 
recop-nized as i)einu in much closer proximity. The wonderful 
mechanism of the Observatory's great dome was greatly admired, 
its one hundred tons of weight being so delicately poised on wheels 
as to revolve readily under the impetus of a moderate shove of 
the shoulders. The huge telescope, also, is so accurately adjusted, 
that it can l)e moved with the pressure of one's hand. Ever\' 
imaginable contrivance of mechanical ingenuity requisite for carrying 
into effect the purposes of the institution's founder appears to have 
been provided foi that little colony of star-gazers, whose thirty or 

74 




THREE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PRESS CLUBS. 
Fc'sTEK CoATES, Thomas H. Keenan, Jr., Lvnn R. Meekins. 



forty members are supplied with food from San Jose, twenty-eight 
miles away, and who, when snow obstructs the mountain roads, are 
wholly cut off from intercourse with the outside world. The 
descent of the mountain was accomplished with exhilarating rapidity, 
and at half-past six o'clock the party were in San Francisco with 
time to dine and rest before preparing for the entertainment of 
the evening. 

That night marked an epoch in the life of every member of 
the party. The men were the guests of the San Francisco Press 
Club at a banquet in the Palace Hotel, and the ladies were given 
a reception by the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association at the 
Pleasanton Hotel. Both were memorable events. The steady 
succession of agreeable surprises that had marked the entertainments 
during the week had inspired the Eastern party with a profound 
admiration for the capacity for hospitality possessed by their San 
Francisco Press Club hosts. The Palace Hotel farewell banquet 
was a fitting culmination of the series, though in some respects it 
seemed calculated to result in retarding the parting guests rather 
than to speed them on their way. At the main table Mr. Hugh 
Hume, President of the San Francisco Press Club, presided, with 
(jen. W. H. L. Barnes at his right as toast-master. Next to the 
last named gentleman was General Ruger, the popular commander 
of the Military Department of the Pacific; and interspersed among 
the guests at the table, and at the five others that extended from 
it at right angles, were many local celelirities, representing the bar, 
the press and the municipal government. The unique mom card 
deserves to be perpetuated. It comprised several pages in imitation 
of "copy" prepared for printing, fastened together at the upper 
end with a cord. On the first page was depicted a bear, holding 
in one paw a bottle of ink taken from an open box labeled "The 
Press Club of San Francisco." In the background, in letters of 

76 



gold, was the inscription, " International League of Press Clubs," 
while underneath the whole were the words, " Report of the 
Committee on Banquet tendered to the visiting delegates of the 
International League of Press Clubs, San Francisco, January i8th, 
1892." The vienu was as follows: 

To the President and Board of Managers, San Francisco Press 
Club : 

Gentlemen'. — The committee appointed by you in the matter of the 
banquet for the visiting delegates report as follows ; 

After a certain amount of highly respectable discussion, it was decided 
to hold the banquet at the Palace Hotel. There are, of course, many finer 
and more pretentious hostelries than this in our city and vicinity, but 
this strikes a fair average and will give our visitors something of an idea 
how the San Francisco newspaper man lives during 365 days in the year. 

^ ^%\\t Cjdursics — • • • 

Which is the most elegant Anglo-Saxon we could extract from M-E-N-U, 
we are happy to say, have been determined upon without serious collision 
between any of the committeemen, but you will never know the amount 
of gray matter expended in the elaboration of the M-E-N-U. (Your next 
banquet committee will learn of it through sad experience.) We have 
decided to commence with 

(fPaUf OKUllt (DysteVS. — This will put our guests at home immediately and 

will give them an opportunity of remarking how 
superior our bivalve is to that of the effete East. 
After this succulent product of our native heath 
(?) comes 

(Hcuxsomine {Royal) — This is as near as we could come to straight Eng- 
lish, as there appeared to be a lack of euphony 
about "royal soup." 

77 



Stovs p'OcUUCCS {Assorted) — There was considerable silence regarding this 

item. Only one member appeared familiar with the 
subject, and even he admitted that there was some 
doubt in his mind as to whether wliat he had once 
partaken of was luus d'ocuvres or ])ors dc comhat. 

^enncbCC Jilllnton [HoI/and Sam-e), Potatoes Parisian. — "What's the matter 

with Sacramento River Salmon ? " was the query 
immediately propounded by an obstreperous mem- 
ber, but it availed liim nothing, as the committee 
were totallv unfamiliar with the rights of minorities. 

J>mectbVCUds (-SV. Cloud). — Anent this there was hot discussion, chiefly 

regarding the pronunciation of the qualifying 
adjunct. When it was learned how the majority 
pronounced it, the member hailing from Boston 
retired from active duty with the committee. 

^KOileil ^iHnshVOOmS. — Unanimously decided upon. Even the doubting 

Thomas, who feared the possibility of getting 
something not the agaricus campestiis, was carried 
away by the popular enthusiasm. After this little 
divertisement comes 

^ilct Cif i^iCCf {Richelieu), French Peas. — After which comes the piece of 

resistance (?) of the evening. (We were told it 
was absolutely necessary to use this expression 
about something or the banquet would not be 
complete. The ordnance editor did the translating.) 

©aitUaS'-bacli ^XlClV, Celery Sauce. — There was some discussion as to 

whether the ducks should be served with or without 
the canvas, but on motion, duly seconded, the mat- 
ter was referred back to the head cook, with power 
to act. After this, in rapid succession will come 

ffioffcc. iJuiucxivs. 

78. 



^ \ 




SOME OF THE GUESTS OF THE PRESS CLUB LEAGUE. 



Mrs. Dr. Hlntek, Mks. J. H. Yagek, Miss Mattison, 

Miss A. Kellogg, Mks. Lv.nn R. Meekins, Mks. T. H, Martin. 



While the foregoing affair is being served, it is proposed that the 
assembled guests antl occasional hosts partake of 

Nock (Napa Valley Wine Company). 

Haut Sauterne (Charles A. Wetmore). 

Portola Vineyard Claret (E. F. Preston). 

riargaux, Souvenir (Charles A. Wetmore). 
rioet & Chandon, Brut imperial. 
G. H. Mumm, Extra Dry. 

By way of parenthesis, we wish to state that it has been your 
committee's sole and constant aim to please those who want the earth. 
Providence alone knows how near we have come to it. 

A trifle weary and travel-stained, and with sincere sympathy for the 
concocters of the next banquet, we beg to submit ourselves, your obedient 
servants. 

The Committee. 

The parenthetical allusion to those who wanted "the earth" 
was, of course, intended for home application exclusively. The 
Eastern delegates on that evening would have been contented to 
take San Francisco as their modest share. The speeches that 
followed the discussion of the repast have been officially recorded 
in the annual report of the League, and it only remains to state 
here that throughout the night and until the small hours of the 
morrow the reason of the diners was copiously feasted while their 
souls overflowed with the inspiring influences of good fellowship 
and good cheer. 

The Ladies' Reception given by the Women's Press Association, 
of California, at the Hotel Pleasanton, was an equally brilliant and 
successful affair. There were some outspoken denunciations of the 
exclusiveness of the men's banquet, whereby was enforced a 
separation of the sexes wholly out of harmony with the professed 
principles of the League, but on the whole the ladies proved equal 
to the emergency and made a night of it on their own account, of 

80 



which they will long treasure the remembrance. The guests were 
received by a commiltee of the Club in the handsomely decorated 
parlors of the hotel, and as very few declinations had been received 
to the seven hundred and fifty invitations sent out, the committee 
had a tolerably ijusy time. The formal exercises that followed the 
introduction of the visitors were begun by Miss Kate Field, who 
spoke in warm terms of the useful functions exercised by Press 
Clubs in the United States, drawing a line, however, at the point 
where men go off to feast by themselves to the utter exclusion of 
their professional sisters. But the speakers who followed Miss 
Field were so eloquent in their eulogiums of women, and of 
journalistic women in particular, that the audience forgot the slight 
the men had offered them in rapturous contemplation of their own 
transcendent excellences. The reception terminated at midnight, 
and was voted by all the participants as having been one of the 
most delightful assemblages imaginable. 

The ladies to whom the visitors were indebted for their 
agreeable entertainment comprised with others the following 
committees : 

Progranin^e Con^mittee: 

Mrs. Ji'LiETTE Mathis, Mrs. Lvi>ia Prescott, 

E. O. Smith, " Ai.ict Ki.nc;sbury Coolf.v, 

L. .1. WaIKINS, " M. P. JciHNSON, 

Miss Makv Lamukki. 

Reception : 

Mrs. Lii.i.ian Punkkit, Mrs. Frances B. Edcertcin, 

Jlta.na AcuLiiY Neal, " Leila Ei.lis, 

Juliette Mathis, " Mary Lvnde Hijfe.nlv.n, 

LolTSE Hf,\HTIREY SmI I H, " SaRAII B. Cnol'ER, 

Miss Minna V. Lewis. 

Entertti ii 1 ti lent : 

Mrs. Bariiara Knell, .Mrs. I". W. D'Evel\n, 

Florence Percy Maiiieson, " Lillian PuNKEir, 

Alice Gary Waierman, " Jiliette Mathis. 

8i 



Tuesday, January 19th, was devoted to concluding the business 
of the Convention, and after the adjournment of that body the 
visitors dispersed themselves over the city seeing the sights, 
inspecting the palaces on Noli Ilill and in other localities dedicated 
to wealth anil fashion, and in searching for mementos of the visit 
to cany hack to their homes. For this was to be their last day in 
San Francisco, antl despite the multifarious excitements of the 
preceding week it seemed to the Faslern i)art\ as though they had 
enjoyed too little t)pportunity for ac(|uainting themselves with the 
characteristics of the Occidental city, wlmse open gates had invited 
them to cross the continent and of whose broad-gauged people 
they were always thereafter to carry so agreeable a rememlirance. 
Accordingly, that was a busily occupied afternoon, winding uj) with 
a fine banquet at the hotel, tendered by their host of a week, Mr. 
Baldwin. The entire first fioor of the hotel was decorated with 
palms, ferns, green trees, smila.x and potted firs, so that the dining 
room was entered through a gorgeous bower. 

In the evening the clima.x of entertainment was reached in a 
reception given in honor of the xisiting delegates b\' Mr. and Mrs. 
M. 11. de Voung in their handsome residence on Califoinia street. 
There was a cheery informalit\' about that last evening of the .San 
Francisco visit, which was especially charming, and the entertainment 
throughout was so cordially genial as to avert from it the slightest 
tinge of soml)reness that might be predicated of a concerted leave- 
taking. This effect was further sustained by the fact thai the host 
and hostess were pledged to accompany the travelers throughout 
the remainder of their journey in California, an arrangement that 
had been greeted with umiualitied satisfaction. There were o\er 
four hundred members of San brancisco's choicest society gathered 
in the de \'oung mansion, and the evening slijjped merrih' awa\'. 
The supper down stairs in the extensive Chinese room drew fortii 

82 



exclamations of amazement from those who had not previously 
seen that wonderful apartment, with its wealth of gorgeous and 
grotesque splendor, cunning carvings, rare mosaics and other 
curiosities innumerable. Great, however, as was the admiration 
elicited by the varied display of Celestial skill, one, after all, could 
not avoid feeling a certain triimiphant sense of personal superiority 
while sipping Ruinart and Fommery Sec, and discussing the 




RECEI'TION ROOM IN M. II. ii VOUiM;^ KliSl Dli.M. K, SAN I'K ANIISCO. 



elaborate menu at a talile on which possibly Confucius had written 
the " Five Canonical Books " that for the past fourteen centuries 
have served as the basis of Chinese literature. Whatever the 
anachronism involved, the nineteenth century certainly had the best 
of it that evening. But midnight had long since passed, and an 
early start must be made on the morrow. Trunks were meanwhile 
to be packed and other arrangements to be perfected for the 

83 



homeward journey. So with lingering grasps of the hands of our 
newlv made friends, and mutual expressions of hopes of again 
meeting, the last farewells were spoken and the final entertainment 
in San Francisco of the Eastern delegates was ended. 

It would he out of place, if, indeed, it were practicable, to 
refer by name to every person to whom the visitors had l)een 
indebted for courtesies and hospitalities during their visit to San 
Francisco. To the Press Club Reception Committee, however, 
the writer desires to record, for himself and on behalf of his 
associates and traveling companions, some faint sense of the 
unqualified gratification which the unwearying attentions of that 
committee afforded, and to repeat here the wish, that had a 
thousand utterances before the party broke up at the journey's 
end, that it may be their pleasure and happiness some day to 
act in their turn as the hosts and entertainers of those noblemen 
of the Pacific Slope. The committee in question comprised 
Gen. John F. Sheehan, Chairman ; Hugh Hume, President of the 
San Francisco Press Club; O. Black, Secretary; M. H. de Young, 
Local Delegate to the League of Press Clubs ; T. T. Williams, 
Ross Jackson, John McComb, H. H. Egbert, E. A. Phillips, John 
Finlay, Harry Mann, Judge Hunt, T. F. Bonnet, Harry M. Tod, 
O. |. Stillwell, E. F. Moran, Samuel Tawing, Samuel Davis, T. J. 
Murphy, Jeremiah Lynch, C. M. Palmer, John Lord Love, 
George R. Sanderson, James O. Denny, Nat J. Brittan and E. W. 
Townsend. 

The San Francisco Press Club had, as already shown, welcomed 
us on our arrival in glowing words of tempting invitation. Their 
farewell dirge was equally characteristic : 

" The newspaper men of San Francisco say good-bye to their 
visiting brethren of the East with reluctance. The association 
has done us good ; and, if we were able, we would hold you 

84 



here for a fortnight longer. We are heartily glad to know 
you, and there is enough testimony in to warrant the belief that 
the occasion has not been wholly devoid of interest to yourselves. 

" But the fiat of the autocratic body known as the Committee 
of Arrangements has gone forth, and you must leave us. May 
your homeward journey be safe, and may you carry with you a 
pleasant recollection of California and her people. Though you 
have seen a deal of California and Californians since your entrance 
nito the State, there is still in store for you much which has 
never, up to date, failed to attract and hold the interest of the 
Eastern visitor. That semi-tropical wonderland of the South, the 
land of golden fruits and blossoming flowers and singing birds, the 
Italy of America, remains to be explored. At Fresno, where you 
are programmed for a day's stay, you will be shown the world's 
largest and finest raisin vineyards, and gain an idea of the nature 
of our interior midwinter climate. 

"For one hundred and fifty miles from Fresno your route lies 
through the great San Joaquin Valley, and then, crossing Tehachapi, 
some of the difficulties which beset the Southern Pacific Company 
will be noted. Then comes the Mojave desert ; it is a novelty, 
but we are not proud of it. 

" Then comes Los Angeles, the metropolis of the Southern 
citrus belt. Here is the earliest home (in California) of the 
orange, the lemon, the fig and the vine ; the bananas and pineapples 
are now on the list. 

" Then come Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego, all 
replete with glories due to Nature's bounteous blessing of soil and 
climate. 

"Then there is a climl) over the mountains, another desert to 
cross and the thing is done. You have left California and are 
on your way home. 

"Good-by! Come again. 

"The Press Club of San Francisco." 

If any point of this narrative sustains the inference that while 

in California the visitors had been afforded the privilege of resting, 

the writer has failed to express himself as lucidly as he had 

desired. Such a concession by the San Francisco Press Club 

85 



would ha\e been a clear violation of contract on the part of that 
organization. At a dinner at the Marlhorough Hotel, in New 
York, given the previous November bv members of the New 
York Press Club to the visiting: officers of the Leagfue, Mr. de 
Young, in inviting the delegates to visit the Pacific Slope, distinct Iv 
stated that he was instructed i)y the San Francisco Press Club to 
promise the visitors during their stay a full supplv of evervthing, 
excepting sleep. That promise, with its limitation, was kept to 
the letter. They evidently thought it would be superfluous for 
the visitors to lie in bed, when opportunities were so abundant 
elsewhere. The only other luxury, besides that of sleep, which 
was at all sparingly offered was drinking water. But, in fairness 
to San Francisco, it should be borne in mind that the visit was 
made during the "rainy season," when no special provision of that 
element would seem to l)e required. flowever, if the visitors 
suffered any particular inconvenience from the deprivation, they 
were politely careful not to allude to it in the face of the masterly 
example of abstinence set them by their hosts. 

Wednesday, January 20th, marked a new epoch in the journey. 
Invitations had been received from several cities in the southern 
part of the State, through the municipal authorities and boards of 
trade and citizens' committees, for the Eastern delegates to visit 
them on their homeward journey, and the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, which had captured us at Ogden, insisted upon holding 
us in its grasp until we should arrive at Los Angeles. Accord- 
ingly, after parting with some of our San Francisco hosts at the 
hotel, and being escorted across the ferry to Oakland by others, 
we started from the depot in the latter place at 10 o'clock on 
Wednesday morning, having first arrived in that city on the 
afternoon of the Wednesday previous. At 2 r. m. we reached 
Sacramento in the custody of Messrs. Houghton, Davis, Sheehan, 

86 



Schmidt, Laikin and Drury, a committee of representatives of that 
capital, who had joined the train at Davisville. The delegates 
were presented with printed programmes descriptive of the city. 
iVlayor Comstock, with other committeemen, received us at the 
depot, and we were speedily driven to the rooms of the Sutter 
Club, where a bevy of particularly handsome lasses were waiting 
to assist us to an elegant luncheon, after presenting the men of 
the party with boutonnieres of violets and the ladies with corsage 
bouquets. Several brief addresses followed on both sides, Mr. S. 
Prentiss Smith and Mayor Comstock speaking in behalf of 
Sacramento, and Messrs. de Young, Berri and Worrall for the 
League. Mr. de Young's eloquent acknowledgment of Sacra- 
mento's splendid reception of the delegates was vigorously indorsed 
by the latter body, and, after a most agreeable entertainment, the 
party re-entered their carriages and were conveyed to the State 
Capitol building, where Secretary Johnson did the honors in the 
absence of Governor Markham, who was detained at home by an 
attack of the grip. After inspecting the Capitol, under the escort 
of a joint committee of citizens and pretty girls, a reception was 
held in the Assembly Chamber. Attorney-General Hart greeted 
the visitors in words of warm welcome, to which President de 
Young responded in felicitous phrases. Ex-Vice-President Lynn 
R. Meekins, of Baltimore, followed with a masterly speech that 
was roundly applauded, and Messrs. Page and Berri, of New York, 
also spoke with effect. From the Capitol the guests were given 
an opportunity to examine the paintings in the million dollar 
Crocker Art Gallery, and were subsequently taken to Sutter's Fort 
and through the principal streets of the city. A conspicuous 
feature of the entertainment in Sacramento, one over which the 
young unmarried men of the party were agitated for days after- 
wards, and which, strange to say, even the ladies of the parly 

87 



cordiallv conceded, was the presence among the entertainers of a 
number of especially pretty and lovable young ladies. Sacramento, 
on account of such a revelation of loveliness, will always have a 
warm place in the remembrance of that ILastern party. It was 
with unfeigned reluctance that the train was taken at 7 in the 
evening, for it seemed that it would have been pleasant to spend 
a week in Sacramento rather than to hurry through the place in 
the brief hours of a midwinter afternoon. 




ChAPTHR 111. 
SouTHERX California. 

JANUARY 21-24, 1892. 

Til the early morning of January 21st began 
the party's delightful experience of Southern 
California, the Italy of America. It lasted 
hut four short days, but it implanted pleasant 
memories to endure through the lifetime of 
all who shared it. Waking at Fresno on 
Thursday the dav was devoted to visitinsj and 
inspecting the vineyards, including Col. William 
Forsvth's raisin vineyards and the wine cellars, 
that abound in the vicinity of that enterprising 
and go-ahead community. Friday was devoted 
to Pasadena and Los Aneeles, driving through and arountl the 
former, and at the latter, where some of the party were entertained 
by Mr. D. Freeman, a friend of Mr. de Young, with a unique 
Spanish breakfast, the delegates dined in royal style in the open 
air under the sliadow of orange and pepper trees on the spacious 
lawns of Judge Silent's residence, ending the day with a formal 
banquet at the Redondo Beach Hotel, where it was decided by 
unanimous vote that more comfort and satisfaction were procurable 
to the square inch than at any watering place on the Atlantic 
coast. Saturda}' the orange groves of Redlands were visited, where 
the roads traversed miles and miles of orchards fairly groaning 




89 



beneath their yoklen burden of luscicms fruit, the overladen 
branches i)einij; sustained by jtoles to jjrevent their breaking. At 
San BernanHiio luncli was partal<en of and s])eeches were deHvered, 
after wliieii the party were hastened to Riverside, wliere they 
enjoved a fifteen mile drive over the splendid roads and through 
the unsj)eakabl\- beautiful Magnolia Avenue, resuming their journey 
at 7.30 in the e\'ening. On Sunday morning, Januar)- 24th, at 




THE NliW YORK I'RESS CLUB DELEGATES AT JLDCE SILENT's, LOS ANGELES, CAL. 



8.45, the soutiiern limit of the journe\- was attained when the 
train drew up at the depot in San Diego. A conmiittee was in 
waiting with a steamboat te) take the i)art\' on an excursion down 
the Bay, visiting en route the l'. S. Cruiser Scr/i Frauc/sco. on the 
invitation of Admiral Brown, and bringing, up at the Coronado 
Beach Hotel, where a delightful lunch was partaken of. Some of 

90 



the party to whom steamboat rides and the quarter (.leeks of war 
vessels were no partieular novelty had declined the invitation to 
sail on the Bay, preferring to explore the features of interest in 
and around San Diego. They were amply repaid. A cable road 
shot them quickly up to a lofty summit, from which a charming- 
view was gained of the peaceful old Spanish valley, while the 
ancient town lay spread beneath them, and bevond it the lovely 
Bay, whose unruffled surface was in peaceful keeping with the 
Sabbath stillness that on every side prevailed. A short carriage ride 
brought the visitors to the old Mission, whose i)ell has echoed 
through that \'alley for more than two centuries, and a little 
further to a small adolie cottage, immortalized bv Helen Hunt as 
the house in which her heroine, Ramona, was wedded to her IncHan 
lover. The streets of San Diego were also quaintlv attractive, but 
as the stores were all closed, the temptations of tlieir windows were 
a vain display. Later in the afternoon a reception was given the 
visitors in the San Diego Opera House, and at 6 p. m. the train 
set out once more to cross the Continent, this time traveling 
eastward. Nearly 4,800 miles had been already traveled, and a 
week's journey was still before them. 

In thus rapidlv summarizing the trip throug^h Southern 
California the enjovments that attended it have iiardly l)cen hinted 
at. The experience was a new one to nearly every person in the 
party. The weather was deliciously clear, and the soft, balmy air 
of that half-tropical region in the middle of January, and the fruits 
and flowers and brilliant foliage that were found abounding on 
every hand, were a revelation for which e\'en the phenomena they 
had encountered during the previous ten days of Pacific Coast life 
had scareelv prepared them. ■ Some of the inore marked events of 
those four days of sunshine and pleasure demand recognition. So, 
also, does the delightful climate that had favored us so admirably 



throughout. California cHmate is one of those things that has to 
be experienced to be appreciated, or even understood. Cahfornia 
presents all the features of the temperate and the semi-tropic 
zones. Upon the mountain heights eternal snow looks down. 
In the great valleys of the Santa Clara, Sacramento and San 
Joaquin, the flowers ever bloom. Upon the coast the chilly sea 
breeze blows. In the interior valleys, summer suns descend and 
an almost tropical warmth exists whicli causes vegetation to grow 
in a way that is wonderful to behold. The famous Japan Current, 
anti-type of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, sweeps the coast, and in 
winter its warm breath extends inland lo the Sierra Nevadas, 
making the weather mild and the rains warm. Fogs seldom exist, 
except along the coast. There are a few hot days in summer, 
we were told, in the interior, but the nights are nearly alwavs 
cool and pleasant. During nine months in the vear the weather 
is about perfect. There are only two seasons in California, the 
wet and the dry. The rainfall in winter is very light, and rain in 
summer or between April and November is hardl\- known. The 
dry atmosphere makes the heat of the interior valleys bearable, and 
it is a well known fact that a temperature from fifteen to twenty 
degrees higher than that to which one is accustomed in the East 
may be borne with comfort. There is scarcely a day in tiie year 
when the weather is so warm or so cold as to prevent a person in 
good health from working out in the open air. Dr. Remondino, 
of San Diego, in his instructive book on " The Mediterranean 
Shores of America," discussing Southern California in relation to 
its climatic, physical and meteorological conditions, finds there six 
distmct classes of climate, all having their characteristic therapeutic 
advantages. "These are the purely insular climate, the peninsular, 
the coast, the foot-hill and valley, ranging in elevation from 200 
to 2,500 feet above sea level, the mountain climate, from 2,500 

92 



feet to 9,000 feet elevation, and the desert climate, from 360 feet 
below sea level to 2,500 feet above." With such a well defined 
variety to select from everybody ought to be accommodated to his 
taste and satisfaction. A special characteristic also, of the Southern 
California climate is its tonic, bracing quality. It has often been 
compared to that of Italy, but the comparison is inexact, for it 
is wholly devoid of the unpleasant peculiarities of the Italian 




UTILIZIiNG A BRIKK H.-VI.T AT A WIXE HOUSE NEAR FRESNO, CAL. 



climate, which latter has the pernicious effect of indisposing people 
to physical or mental effort. In California life is wide-awake and 
active, laziness is exotic. Well has it been said that " in that 
refulgent summer it is a luxury to draw the breath of life." 

Returning to our entrance into Southern California after 
leaving Sacramento, the insight into grape culture and the wine 

93 



industry rained at Fresno was of great interest. The partv, 
breaking into several detachments, visited, as has been stated, all 
the leading vineyards in the vicinity, and the recollection of the 
hospitality they received at Barton's, Woodworth's, Egger's, Eisen's 
and Forsyth's will long be cherished. Fresno, with its crowded 
streets and busv stores, imjjressed them as a wonderfullv active 
place, especiallv when they learned that it had grown from 600 to 
14,000 in population during the past ten years. After the 
luncheon at the Hughes House, Mr. Marcus Pollaskv announced 
that there was to be no speech-making on that occasion, wliereupon 
an hour or so was devoted to making speeches. Dr. Chester 
Rowell welcomed the guests in a very neat address, and, after the 
statistics of Fresno County had been exhaustivelv rehearsed, Mr. 
M. H. de Young gave the citizens of Fresno some practical advice 
relative to dcveloi)ing the county's resources by introducing canals 
and rendering the San Joacjuin River navigable, which advice was 
received with manifest approval. Messrs. Wilde, Martin and Page 
also addressed the gathering. One distinctive feature of Fresno in 
which its people take justifiable pride is its claim to the possession 
of "the finest opera house of anv city in America of less than 
100,000 population." An inspection of the establishment gave the 
impression that the claim is not an idle boast. An impromptu 
entertainment was at once started, Mrs. Frank Leslie leading the 
way with a recitation of the stirring Columbus ode " Sail On," 
followed by Miss Kate Field and Marshall P. Wilder. 

At Pasadena, on the foUowinii' dav, new charms were liroujiht 
to view. Orange groves loaded down with golden spheres stretched 
out on every hand, dotted with cottages and lawns, and back of 
all snow-ca]iped mountains. Riding in anv direction everv turn in 
the road revealed new beauties. Pasadena is the chosen home of 
the wealthy, and the residences and surroundings bear evidence of 

94 



large purses and lavish expenditure. The profusion of flowers 
threw the visitors from the Atlantic Coast into ecstasies. The 
handsome cottages were embowered in the dark green foliage of 
orange trees, and the gardens were resplendent with brilliant 
flowers of every possible hue. The valley view from the Raymond 
Hotel, stretching h\)m the distant ocean to the mountains, is one 
of surpassing beauty. The j^arty were fortunate in having selected 
the winter season for visiting Southern California, for at that time 
of the year that rrgion is most charming, and nature's gifts are 
most abundanth- exhibited. Mr. Charles F. Nordhuff, of the New 

York Hci-ald, whom we met later 
at the Coronado Beach Hotel, 
relates the following experience 
of a January day in that region: 

"As I drove out from Los 
Angeles into the country on a 




,V r.\SAUli.N.\ KtSlDENCE. 



January morning with a friend, 
we met a farmer coming into 
town with a market wagon of 
produce. It was a cloudless, 
warm, sunn\' day. The farmer's 
little girl sat on the seat with 
him, a chubby, blue-eyed little 
tot, with her sun bonnet half 
hilling her curls, and a siiawl, which her careful moliier liad wraiJjK'd 
about her shoulders, carelessly flung aside. To me, fresh from the 
snowv plains and Sierras, and with the chill breath of winter still 
on me, this was a pleasing and novel sight ; but the contents of 
the man's wagon were still more startling to my Northern eyes. 
He was carrying to market oranges, pumpkins, a lamb, corn, green 
peas in their pods, sugar-cane, lemons and strawberries. What a 
mixture of Northern and Southern products ! What an odd and 
wonderful January gathering in a farmer's wagon! . . . All the 
fence corners, where there were fences, were crowded with the 
castor oil plant, which is here a perennial, twenty feet high, a weed 
whose brilliant crimson seed pods shine like jewels in the sunlight. 



95 



Below us as we looked off a hill-top lay the suburbs of Los 
Angeles, green witii the deep green of orange groves and golden 
to the nearer view with their al)undant fruit. Twentv-one different 
kinds of flowers were blooming in the open air in a friend's garden 
in the town this January day; among them the tube-rose, the 
jessamine and the fragrant stock or gillyflower, which has here a 
woodv stalk, often four inches in diameter, and is, of course, a 
perennial. The heliotrope is trained over piazzas to the height of 
twenty feet, and, though the a])ple and ])ear orchards, as well as 
those of the almond and English walnut, will continue bare for 
some time, and the vineyards, just getting pruned, look dreary, 
the vegetable gardens are green as with us in June, and men and 
boys are gathering the orange crop." 

The al fresco dinner under the pejiper trees on Judge Silent's 
lawn in Los x\nge]es was a charming affair, and, with its numerous 
aj^parent incongruities to the Eastern minds of season and locality, 
would have stood for an Araliian Night's entertainment, lield in 
the davtime. Oriental magic could have easil\- overcome that 
latter trifling mcomijatil>ilitv. Los Angeles is said to owe much 
of its attractiveness to its agreeable surroundings. Certainly the 
afternoon and evening spent at Rodondo Beach tended to verify 
that assertion. Among the profusion of tlowurs at the hotel, 
which the visitors were graciouslv invited to help themselves to, 
were some of the most splendid roses seen on the entire trip. 
The view from the hotel porch of the sun setting on the Pacific 
horizon was a fitting termination to a day that had been replete 
with itrilHant and picturesiiue inciilent. Los Angeles is situated 
nearh' in the center of one of the richest valleys on this continent. 
All the citius family llourisiies there to the highest pertection, and 
horticulture and agricidture are sustained to a degree unsurpassed 
anvwhere. Between five and si.\ thousand carloads of oranyes, we 
were informed, are annualh' exported thence to lutstern markets, 
and an equal amount of transportation is recjuired for carr)ing the 
crops of dried fruits, raisins, walnuts, wines and potatoes. In 

96 



addition to its agricultural capability, the region abounds in other 
resources, and it is claimed that within thirty miles of Los Angeles 
there are exhaustless reservoirs of coal oil, immense petroleum and 
asphalt beds, rich mines of gold and silver, extensive tin deposits 
and a wide range of valuable metals. With all those natural 




WATCHING THE SUN SET IN THE I'ACIKIC OCEAN AT REDONDO BEACH. 

endowments, it might compete for the championship with "The 
Happy \^alley " which the imagination of Di. Johnson created for 
the admiration of the youth of several generations ago, before the 
advent of Horatio Alger, Jr., or the evolution of the dime novel. 

97 



The day at Redlands was one of California's perfect winter 
days, too warm for wraps, hut thoroughh- dehg-htful. iVs the 
visitors were driven through the stretches of orange groves they 
were profuse in their expressions of dehght, but when Canyon 
Crest was reached, and the entire valley spread before the vision 
for miles and miles, the snow-covered tops of Old Baldy, Grayback 
and San Jacinto glistening in the warm sunlight, thev began to 
realize the full force of California's wondrous scenerv and climate, 
and were silent in their admiration. When the carriages returned 
to the depot they were laden with flowers and oranges, and 
Redlands was pronounced the choicest section of California that 
the party had seen, that, of course, being the regular verdict 
passed upon each successive town they visited. Arriving at San 
Bernardino— ■' San Berdoo," as the inhabitants call it—the Eastern 
guests were gi\'en a drive over the city, and were afterward 
entertained with a banquet at the Stewart hotel, at which 150 
persons sat down. After the solids had disappeared, judge George 
E. Otis welcometl the party in a brief speech, and introduced 
Judge Willis, who responded to the toast "The Press." lie was 
followed by W. A. Harris, in a neat and short address, and Judge 
Rowell, who gave some statistics regarding the county. Marshall 
P. Wilder told a story or two, and Mrs. Frank Leslie recited a 
poem. The ban(|uet was hurried, but successful. The tiain left 
San Bernardint» at 2.^,0 v. >r. for Riverside. In the San Bernardino 
range of mountains in this region, on the summit of the Grayback, 
is an aeti\e glacier of dimensions little inferior to some of the 
minor glaciers of the Ali)s and the Andes. The existence of this 
stupendous marvel of moving ice, after having been mainlained 
but not generall\- beliex'ed for half a century, was, in June, 1892, 
verified b\- an expedition of scientists from Los Angeles, who 
discovered at a height of over 10,000 feet a frozen river a mile 

98 



long and twenty-two feet in depth that is crushing down towards 
the valley at the rate of about forty-seven feet yeaily. The day was 
wound up at Riverside, a town then of about 6,000 inhabitants, 
and possibly by the time of this writing having twice that number, 
so rapidly do California communities grow when they once take a 
start. The tovvn owes its existence and prosperity wholly to 
irrisfation, the water of the Santa Ana River having been 
distributed ov'er an area of about fifty-two square miles, converting 
an arid desert into an Eden. Riverside is peculiarly an orange 
city. It covers a large plateau for the most part unbroken by 
hill or ravine. Some fifteen or twenty thousand acres of this land 
hav^e been brought under cultivation, about fifteen thousand acres 
bemg devoted to citrus fruits. The land is subdivided and owned 
in small holdings of from five to twenty acres each, and orchard 
Hanks orchard in solid phalanx for miles in all directions. One 
vast forest of orange trees covers the plain, unbroken, in most 
|)art, save by streets or the small plats devoted to residences and 
ornamental shrulibery. Magnolia avenue extends for many miles, 

being a double drive 125 feet 
in width, with rows of ever- 




green shade trees in the center 
and on either side. Other 
streets in all other cities fade 
in comparison with this. The 
drive that afternoon through 
Magnolia avenue was most 
charminof. On returnina: to 
the depot specimens were ob- 
tained of genuine "American 
tin " from the near-by Temescal mines, and for da\'s afterward the cars 
were decorated with branches of Riverside oranges. Twelve hours 



IHE COKUN'ADO HOTEL, NEAR SAN UiVA.U, CAI., 



99 



on the cars brought the party to San Diego, with the consequences 
already briefly related. The Coronado Beach Hotel is probablv 
the largest caravansary in America ; and all its appointments are 
most luxurious, and to travelers on the wing, as we were, most 
temptingly inviting. After lunching there, the party disbanded for 
a short time, some going to the swimming baths, others to the ball- 
room to listen to the music of the U. S. S. San Fi-aiiciscos band, and 
later the entire partv was formally escorted through the hotel and 
grounds. They were surprised and delighted. Of course, in such 
a hasty inspection only the more striking features of the place were 
seen, but they fullv bore out the description Charles Dudley 
Warner gives of the Coronado in his book, " The American 
Italy." Mr. Warner says : 

"The stranger, when he first comes upon this novel hotel and 
this marvelous scene of natural and created beautv, is apt to exhaust 
his superlatives. I hesitate to attempt to describe this hotel, this 
airy and picturesque and half-bizarre wooden creation of the 
architect. Taking it and its situation toa^ether, I know nothing 
else in the world with which to com])are it, and I have never seen 
any other which so surprised at first, that so improved on a two 
weeks' acquaintance, and that has left in the mind an impression 
so entirely agreeable. It covers about four and a half acres of 
ground, including an inner court of about an acre, the rich made 
soil of which is raised to the level of the main floor. The house 
surrounds this, in the Spanish mode of building, with a series of 
galleries, so that most of the suites of rooms have a double 
outlook, one upon this lovely garden, the other upon the ocean or 
the harbor. The effect of this interior court or pa/io is to give 
gaiety and an air of friendliness to the place, brilliant as it is with 
flowers and climbing vines ; and when the royal and date palms 
that are vigorously thriving in it attain their growth it will be 
magnificent. Big hotels and caravansaries are usuallv tiresome, 
unfriendly places ; and if I should lay too much stress upon the 
vast dining-room (which has a floor area of 10,000 feet, without 
post or |)illar), or the beautiful breakfast room, or the circular 
ball-room (which has an area of 11,000 feet, with its timber roof 



open to the lofty observatory), or the music-room, bilHard-room 
for ladies, the reading-rooms and parlors, the pretty gallery 
overlooking the spacious office rotunda, and then say that the 
whole is illuminated with electric lights, and capable of being 
heated to any temperature desired, I might convey a false 
impression as to the actual comfort and homelikeness of this 
charming place. On the seaside the broad galleries of each story 
are shut in by glass, which can be opened to admit, or shut to 
exclude, the fresh ocean breeze. Whatever the temperature 
outside, those great galleries are always agreeable for lounging or 
promenading. For me, I never tire of the sea and its changing 
color and movement. If this great house were filled with gfuests, 
so spacious are its lounging places, I should think it would never 
appear to be crowded ; and if it were nearly empty, so admirably 
are the rooms contrived for family life, it will not seem lonesome. 
1 shall add that the management is of the sort that makes the 
guests feel at home and at rest. Flowers, brought in from the 
gardens and nurseries, are everywhere in profusion — on the dining 
tables, in the rooms, all about the house. So abundantly are they 
produced that no amount of culling seems to make an impression 
upon their mass." 

After inspecting the hotel, the League party were re-escorted 
across the Ba\' to San Diego, and were taken on a ride about the 
city and out on the hills. Fisher's opera house was thrown open 
for their inspection and admiration. A reception at the parlors of 
the Hotel Brewster having been announced for five o'clock, all 
assembled there at that hour, where they met the representative 
people of the city. One of the most pleasing features of the 
reception, though entirely impromptu, was the introduction of the 
new^sboys by Captain Friend. The boys listened with marked 
attention to the remarks of Miss Kate Field and Mr. de Young. 
At 5.30 the visitors left the Brewster for the train, and on their 
arrival they found the newsboys arranged in line at the station, 
who received them with cheers. Miss Kate Field then demanded 
the boutonieres of the party, and off they came from broadcloth and 



satin, and with her own hands Miss Field pinned them on the 
little fellows' jackets, after which graceful act, which set the 
urchins to grinning like Cheshire cats, Mrs. Frank Leslie 
addressed the boys briefly, but feelingly, and promised to "write 
up " the reception they had given the Eastern travelers. She was 
followed by Mr. de Young, who gave the lads a fatherly talk, 
which seemed to impress them. As the train moved out from the 
depot the crowd on the platform ciucred to the echo and was 
vigorously answered by the departing visitors, the ladies joining in 
waving their handkerchiefs. That was our final adieu to the Pacific 
coast, and to the garden region of Southern California. (Jur faces 
were now set toward the Atlantic. 







Chapter iv. 

The Journey Home. 

X LEAVING San Diego, on the night of January 
24th, to set out across the continent directly for 
home, we toot: our leave of Mr. and Mrs. de 
Voung, who intended to remain a short time at 

Coronado Beach before returning to San Francisco. 

Mr. Welshons, of I^ittsburg, also left us at this point, 

intending to extend his journey to Oregon before 
returning, and Mr. Koenig, of Chicago, likewise 
abandoned us here, as he contemplated taking ship to the Sandwich 
Islands. It was with no genuine good grace that the party turned 
their backs on the Pacific Ocean, where the}' had been so cordially 
received and so magnificently entertained. It was hard to realize 
that only thirteen days had elapsed since California was entered at 
Auburn, so many and so marked had been the events in the 
interval. This was the third Sunda}' away from home, the first 
having been spent in crossing the Rockv Mountains at Leadville and 
Glenwood, and the second at Santa Cruz and San Jose. The 
ne.xt was to l)ring us back to New York. Soon after leaving 
San Diego we were regaled with a treat specially gotten up for 
the League party by our indefatigable hosts of the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, acting in collusion with the ever 
wide-awake Jerome. Arrangements had been made in advance for 

103 



illuminatintz: the old San Juan Capistrano Mission building, situated 
in the Santa Ana valley, about twenty-five miles east of San Diego. 
This old ehuicli had been ereeted about 150 years previously by 
pious Spanish monks, who had learned, through some method of 
Castilian blarney, to overcome the inertia of the aboriginal 
inhal)itants of that region and induce them to actually work, and 
the walls of adobe, or sun-dried bricks, seemed massive enough to 
have defied the elements for centuries had there not unluckily come 
aU)ng an eartluiuake in December, 1812, which destroyed the 
structure, besides killing thirtv of its inmates. The misha|), 
however, heightened tlie piesent picturesi|ueness ot the scene, as in 
the inkv blackness of tlie night we viewed the shatterctl walk' and 
the remains of the lofty arches b\" the glaring light of a huge 
bt)nfire that the dexotees in charge had pre[)ared at tiie instigation 
of the railroad olficials. The effect in behall of a'Sthctie 
satisfaction pioduced by seismic disturbance was im])ressively 
illustrated, and might suggest a text for some art editor to 
expatiate upon to advantage, as object lesstms in that s]iecial 
branch of t-ulture are fre(|uentl\" obtainable. Some time was spent 
at San (,'apistiano exploring the ruins, and examining the chapel 
that has been relitted for leligious puiposes, and the (vw (.)tlu-r 
ajxirtments whicli were sufficiently preserved to indicate the original 
majesty of the edifice. It is gratifying to record here the lact 
that the old San CajMstrano Mission building has, since the tlate 
of our visit, been taken in charge by the Historical Society of 
Southern California, and is to be hereafter protected from the 
combined ravages of decay and relic-hunting vandals. A few 
weeks subsequent to the passage of the Press Club League, tlie 
Society named sent a party of discreet persons to thoroughly 
inspect the condition of the structure, and they found that a 
com])arativelv small expenditure would suffice to preserve it for 

104 



many years to come. They re|)orted on their return that " the 
vastness of the old Mission and the uniqueness of the architecture 
were a surprise to manv. It was found that the large brick 
arches in the east and sdiuli walls of the interior court-vard were 
still standing almost entire, while ahout onedialf of the north side 
remains. The front arelnvavs to the main building- are also in a 
fair state of preservation, and the portion still occupied as a chapel 
and residence of the priest, with its coat of whitewash, presents a 
neat ai)[)earanee. Of course, the main edihce which was destroyed 
i)y the eaithi|uakt- in 1S12 is almost in comjilete deca\', but enough 
remains of the walls to give a fair idea of the character of the, 
for that time, magnificent structure. The unused rooms of the old 
building have a mustv, sickening smell, that is almost stiHing. The 
little chapel in use is sweet and clean, having but lately been 
renovated and repaired. Ancient oil paintings and statues are 
scattered al)out, as well as furniture and altar furnishings brought 
from Spain more than a century ago. There are candelabra of 
solid silver, and massive sacred emblems of pure gold. The old 
bells (h\e in numl)er, one of tliem dated 1726) still hang in their 
places and act as solemn monitors to all hearers ol their tones, as 
in the palm\- thus of \ore. A picket fence has been jjut around 
the front of the building to keep cattle away, and a little cement 
here and there, and some new tiles on the roof in spots, will keep 
the building in rejiair a long time." 

The next morning, Januarv 25th, we found ourselves on the 
Mojave Desert. It must have been a most discouraging region in 
which to build a railroad, but the words Sa///tr Fc mean " Holy 
Faith," anil the i)rojectors of the road that was conveying us must 
certainly have been insiiired by tiie significance of the phrase. For 
miles, antl hundreds of miles, the road runs through an arid 
cactus desert, dustv and repellant to the eyes and other senses. 

'05 




A Mull W 1 l;l 11 1 , 



Along a larti'e portion of the route that day we passed hv a 

succession of extinct volcanos, througii vast lava fields, whose hartl 

material had been worn bv the action of 
the elements, or possibly by the erosive 
action of some ancient inland sea, intt) all 
imaginable and unimaginable shapes. The 
grotes(|ue formations that line the river 
beds of the Northwest, tlnuugh the region 
which (ieneral Ilazen immortalized as the 
" Great l/ncultivable American Desert," and 
known localh' in those regions as " Bad 
Lands," were vivitllv suggested b\ the 
strange and weirtl shapes that had been 
assumed b\- lliesc remains of ancient vol- 
canic action, recalling General Sullv's epito- 

mization of the Tcrrcs Maitzuu'scs as 

" Hell, with the fires out." In man\- 

places, seen at a distance lining the hori- 
zon of that drearv desert, and even closer 

bv as we sped ra])idlv past, the eye seemed 

to dwell upon hmg ranges of human struct- 
ures, forts and castles, and towers with 

minarets, and formidable walled cities. 

The impression of human agenev in their 

contrivance was pervading and irresistible. 

About noon the train was stopped to allow 

a confab with a band u{ Indians, the most 

s(|ualid, aijject and repulsive masters of 

the soil, probabh', to be encounti-red du 

this continciU. Their long hair, ignorant 

of combs, hung over their low foreheads, covering their unwashed 




A M' Ml w i: 



io6 



faces and tlicir eyes, and giving them a fierce, animal appearance. 
The only sign of genuine intelligence they displayed during our 
brief interview with them was their emphatic disinclination to be 
made the \ictims of amateur photographers. These savages were 
reported to make their i)rincipal diet upon grasshoppers, and, 
judging from the proximity of their bones to the surface, their 
supplies must have been short that season. At i v. m. we crossed, 
at the Needles, from California into Arizona, and there again we 
stopped for some time to interview a party of Mojave Indians 
who were lounging about the station to give us a welcome and 

to sell bows and jjottery. The 
men were tall, and not without 
some semblance to good looks, 
a quality of which the less than 
half-clad squaws were utterly 
destitute. Time was, once, 
when the Mojaves were famous 
for their bravery and prowess; 
now theii' leading eharactei'istics 
arc indolence and vice. A 
member of our partv, engaging 
in conversation with one of the few white men that were lounging 
about the station, drew from that worthy, a very good looking 
man, a gambler Uv profession, the following account of the 
Indians: "We had some trouble with them at hrst, because they 
insisted in coming to town dressed wholly in their conscious 
innocence ; but we finally got together enough second-hand clothes 
to make them fairlv respectable, though far from decent. They do 
the coarse work al)out the town, and make enough to live on." 
Apparently, they need as little food as raiment. So through the 
alkali dust and amidst wreckage of pre-historic ages we sped 




MolIAVE rtDLERS AT HIE NEEDLES. 



107 



steadily Eastward throuoliout that and the following dav, until at 
1.30 p. M., on Januar\' 26th, we were afforded an opportunity for 
enjoying one of the most interesting e.xperienees of the whole 
homeward journey. The train was stojjjjed at a village inhabited 
by Laguna Pueblo Indians. This unicjue settlement was composed 
of a series of adol)e structures, j)lanted 011 a hillside, and built one 
above the other in terraces like the steps of an enormous stairway. 
As originalh' built they had no doors, access to the interiors being 
gained only i)y climbing to the roofs with ladders, and descending 
in like manner through trap 

doors. The houses in that 

little community constitute one 
of the oreatest archa;olo"ical 
curiosities of North America, 
as they are accepted b\- ethnolo- 
gists as having pertained to 
some semi-civilized people that 
existed, and occupied the soil, 
and disapjjcared, wholl\- prior, it 
is asserted, to even the advent 
of the red aborigines. The 

Laguna Indians of the present time have tiaits antl habits that 
distinguish them from all other tril>es of Indians, their persistent 
living in houses being one of the most marked of these. They 
have improved upon the plans of the original architects of the 
place by piercing the walls of each tier of buildings with doorways, 
and our party, visiting the interiors of these curious relics of 
pre-historic anticiuity, were agreeably surprised at the cleanliness and 
tidy order that everywhere prevailed. We \isited them in their 
residences, ins]iected their church, avoided their mangy dogs, and 
pretty nearly denuded the place of all the pottery it contained. 




TlIK ANCIKNT rUEULO I OWN OF LAGl'NA, N. M. 



108 



buying for small sums some very neat and curious specimens 
of Indian handicraft, quaintly designed. The conventional price 
asked for a clay image the size of one's thumb, or for a 
bowl of the same material big enough for a Press Club 
[umch-bowl, was a quarter of a dollar, or, in the vernacular of 
the Arizona desert, and of the West generally, "two-bits." After 
hearing this latter phrase constantlv repeated, evidently the sum 
total of Laguna's acquaintance with commercial Anglo Saxon, it 
was quite startling when a comely maiden, modest and neatly 
attired, turned to our party and said in excellent English, " I shall 
be very glad to show you around." It [iroved on investigation 
that this young daughter of the desert was a graduate of the 
Indian school at Carlisle. Pennsylvania. Having been educated 
after ci\-ilized fashion she had returned to her tribe. Who knows 
what destin}' was before her, whether she would succeed in the 
missionary work of raising her associates toward the plane to which 
she herself had been raised, or whether, as unfortunatelv usuallv 
happens, she would ultimately relapse into their condition ? Pushing 
onward at three o'clock, and picking up at some unknown stopping 
place our old friend, Cajitain jack Crawford, "The Poet Scout," 
we reached Albuquerque, which, at the depot, presented quite a 
modern, almost an Eastern, appearance, but which, further on, 
when the Mexican section was penetrated, showed up in the light 
of an old thriftless, untidy Mexican settlement. However, the 
leaven of Eastern push has found its way there and the town, 
despite the sharp line of demarcation between the two sections, is 
rapidly being Americanized. It contains some very fine buildings, 
notably the hotel and the Commercial Club, and a newspaper 
office, nearly completed at the time of our visit, besides electric 
lights and national banks. In New Mexico the nineteenth century 
is still struggling to get the better of fifteenth century sluggishness, 

109 



but neither the present nor the next generation will witness its 
success. A committee from the Commercial Club drove us around 
through this interesting city, with which we would gladly have 
become more familiar. Our time was brief, however, and we were 
forced to hurry on, reaching Santa Fc, the famous capital of the 
territory, at nine o'clock in the evening, nearly eight hours behind 
the time set down for our arrival, owing to the delays that grew 




STREET SCENE IN SANTA FE. — NEW MEXICAN WOOll CAKUIEKS. 



out of the interest we had felt in the several pomts at which we 
had been stopj)ing. 

At Santa Fe the Press League party received a genuine 
Territorial ovation. The Reception Committee had joined us at 
Albuquerque, and, although a little dismaved at the interruption to 
their plans our tardiness occasioned, they did their duty as 



entertainers most handsomely. A great crowd was present at the 
depot on our arrival, and we were bundled without delay into 
carriages and driven raiMilly to the State House, a splendid building 
to find in such a locality, which had just been completed, and was 
l)rilliantly illuminated for our reception, but which was destined to 
be a few months afterward totally destroyed b\- fire. The Reception 
Committee rather prided themselves on this building, as well thev 
might, for it not only was a vcrv imposing edifice, but its whole 
cost had been paid for out of Territorial funds, a large portion of 
the surplus apportioned for that purijose iiaving actually been 
turned in again to the Territorial Treasury. The general circulation 
of this statement made the New \'ork delegates, especially, gaze 
at one anotlier in silent, pensive wonderment. I'shered into the 
Legislative Chamber on the ui)i)er floor we found a large 
assemblage awaiting us, in the galleries, Mexicans ; on the floor, 
army oflcers in full uniform, mostly pertaining to the Tenth 
United States Infantry, which then constituted the garrison of 
Santa Fe, besides handsome and handsomely dressed ladies and 
Eastern visitors. Gov. L. Bradford Prince, erstwhile of Long 
Island, made a very sprightly speech of welcome to the party, the 
effect of which was sensibly heightened by the commanding figure 
ami sonorous voice of the speaker. Then the Tenth Infantry 
Hand discoursed some patriotic airs, followed by some sweet pretty 
singing from the voices of about fifty Indian girls from the 
neighboring Ramona school, who had been awaiting our arrival for 
eight hours in order to give us that melodious welcome. At the 
conclusion of the children's singing we were shown through the 
building and were then rapidl\- transported to the " Palace," the 
name which the ancient edifice occupied by the Governor of the 
Territory has borne for man\- years. It is a long, one-story 
building facing the public square, occupied by the post-office and 



other government departments, a numher of apartments in one end 
being- set aside as the Governor's resilience. The apjiearance of 
this ancient structure scarcely justifies the conventional suggestions 
of its name. It was erected in 159S, and has a certain latter-da\' 
distinction ujjou which much stress is laid in the circumstance of 
its having i)een occupied by General I.ew \\'allace while he was 
Governor of New Mexico, in 1S79 and iSSo. It was in one of 
the apartments of this house that he wrote his famous novel, 
" Ben Mur," and it was in the room in which that hook was 
written that the Press League were received by (iovernor Prince 
and his briiiht and charmina: 












- -;rT^p«t!SS^Vi^l■;V.■;';^■' \ 







wife. The reception was the 

occasion of a large gathering 

of the ladies and gentlemen 

of Santa Fe, including the 

officers of the Tenth Infantr\- 

and the ladies of the garrison. 

The evening was pas.jed most 

agreeabh' in eon\'ersation and 

in the examination of the 

multitude of local curiosities 

and (jld time i)rints ami 

pictures which (ioxernor Princi.' has gathered during his long 

residence in New Mexico, the 'i'enth Infantrv Band meanwhile 

discoursing excellent music. .Speaking of the Palace, (ioxernor 

Prince declared it to be the most interesting [ilace in tiie countrw 

Certainh' no otlu-i structure in Anu'iica has such a histor\' behind 

it. It antedates tin- settlement of Jamestown b\- nine vears, and 

that of Plvmouth b\- twent\-two, and has stood tluring the two 

hundred antl ninety-two veais, since its erection, as liie li\ing centre 

of ever\thing of liistoric im])ortance in the Southwest. Through 



112 



all that long period, uiietiier under Spanish, Puehlo, Mexican or 
American control, it has been the seat of power and authority. 
Whether the ruler was called Vicero3^ Captain-General, l\)litical 
Chief, Department Commander or Governor, and whether he 
presided over a kingdom, a [province, a department or a territory, 
this has been his official residence. " From here," said Governor 
Prince, " Onate started in 1599 on his adventurous expedition to 
the Eastern plains; here, seven years later, eight iiundred Indians 




TUt OLDEST HIILDING IN AMERICA, AT SANTA FE, N. M. 



came from far-off (Jui\'ira to ask aid in their war with the Aztecs; 
from here, in 161S, X'incento de Salivar set forth to the Moqui 
countrv, onl\- to lie turned back bv rumors of the triants to be 

O 

encountered ; antl from here Penalosa and his brilliant troop 
started, on the 61I1 of March, 1662, on their marvelous expedition 
to the Missouri ; in one of its strong rooms the commissary 
general of the In(|uisition was imprisoned a few years later by the 
same Penalosa ; within its walls, fortified as for a siege, the bravest 

"3 



of the Spaniards weie massed in the revolutiun of 1680; here, on 
the 19th of August of that year, was given the order to execute 
forty-seven Puef>lo prisoners in the plaza which faces the building ; 
here, but a dav later, was the sad war council held which deter- 
mined on the evacuation of the citv ; here was the scene of trium])!! 
of the Pueblo chieftains as thev ordered the destruction of the 
Spanish archives and the church ornaments in one grand conflagra- 
tion ; here De \'argas, on September 14th, 1692, after the eleven 
hours' combat of the preceding dav, gave thanks to the Virgin 
Marv, to whose aid he attributed iiis triumphant capture of the 
city; here, more than a centur\ later, on March 3d, 1S07, Lieu- 
tenant Pike was brought before Governor Alencaster as an invader 
of Sjianish soil; here, in 1S22, the Mexican standard, with its eagle 
and cactus, was raised in token that New Mexico was no longer a 
dependencv of Spain ; here, on the succeeding day, Jose Gonzales, 
a Pueblo Indian of Taos, was installed as Governor of New 
Mexico, soon after to be executed bv order of Armijo ; here, in 
the principal reception room, on August 12, 1S46, CajUain Cooke, 
the American envow was received b\- Grovcrnor Armijo and sent 
back with a message of defiance ; and here, live da\s later, General 
Kearney formallv took possession of the city, and slept, after his 
long and wearv march, on the carjieted earthen floor of the Palace." 
The Governor thinks the ultimate use of the buiUling should be as 
a home for the anticpiities of New Mexico. We slept on our 
train at the station that night, and earlv tlie next morning we 
were exploring this interestmg place which enjovs the distinction 
of i)eing the most ancient citv of the countrv. and one of the 
most ancient capitals of the world. It is laigelv liuilt of adobes, 
and it abounds in all kinds of interest. b'or instance, we went 
into modern stores, and from these we visited the old .San Miguel 
church that retains a great deal of the wood uscil in its con- 

114 




struction more than three hundred years ago. it having been built 
by the Spaniards in 1545. Near the ehurch is an adobe house 
reported to be still more ancient, being, in fact, the oldest structure 

l)uilt by white men in America. Then 
we visited the shops and laid in sup- 
plies of curios, particularly some very 
fine filagree work in gold and silver. 
Afterwards, while some of the party 
drove out to the Ramona school others 
witnessed a meek performance of guard 
mounting at Fort Worth, subsetjuently 
attending a concert given in honor by 
the Tenth Infantry Band on the plaza 
in front of the Palace, at the conclu- 
sion of which vvc resumed our places 
in the train, bearing away with us as 
guests for the rest of the day Governor 
and Mrs. Prince and several Santa Fe gentlemen and ladies. 

Our visit to Santa Fe was marked, on the previous evening, 
by a little episode that at one time seemed likely to create some 
excitement, though its secret was so carefully guarded that its 
narration in these pages will be the first intimation of it to a 
majority of the League excursionists. It had lieen the subject 
of constant regretful comment among the latter that the editors 
of Eastern newspapers seemed to have an entirely inadequate 
conception of the striking character and brilliant accompaniments 
of the journey. With a view to rectifying this state of inappre- 
ciative apathv, an acti\'e meml)er of the party, f(Mmerly a resident 
of the West, organized a little scheme that would have secured 
extensive Eastern editorial notice for the party could it have 
been successfully carried into effect. The idea was original, 



OLUESr CIUKCII IN AMERICA 
AT SANTA FE, N. M. 



"5 



but its overthrow was ahoriu'inal. It hail been noticed alony' the 
journev that Marsiiall P. Wilder was a source of much interest 
to the Indians, his small figure, droll face and big laugh attracting 
them immediately. Thev would often touch him, and seemed 
to think it did them good, calling him "medicine man, heap 
head." When it was known we were to remain over night at 
Santa Fe, it was planned to have a party of Indians rush into 
the Governor's I-'alace during the reception, seize and carry off 
Marshall, announcing that they wanted him for their "medicine 
man," and escape with him to an Indian mud village, several 
miles in the country, where he Wdidd have really experienced a 
night with the native New Mexico Indian, with one white com- 
panion, who knew the chief of the \'illage. The loss would 
have been heralded abroad in the dispatches that night, and the 
brave searching party which would ha\e been organizi'd, eliiellv 
from the traveling scribes, armed to the veeth, would have 
gallantiv rescued the little humorist the next morning without 
bloodshed, and get back in time fur the train, covered with giorv 
and New Mexico dirt and dust. Mditor I'rost, of the Nczv 
Mexican, Messrs. Wilder, Austin and l\-nnev, representing the 
Associated and United Press dissociations, and the originator of 
the idea, were the only ones who knew the secret. The Governor 
was counted on to get out the troojjs, innocentiv, of course, and 
the idea was to be worked clear thrt)Ugh with the four above 
mentioned sworn to secrecv for one vear. But, alas ; the 
Indians were lacking, excejit a few wamlerers, who looked so 
hungrv and dirtv that they challenged pity instead of suggesting 
thoughts of ilanger. Ten o'clock came and the band of Indians 
was not forthcoming. Still, the schemers waited and hoped, 
with scouts out in search of fierce red nK-n. Then, finally. Wilder 
began to object. He thought it would be best for him to first 

ii6 



telegraph his father in New York, so that he would receive the 
dispatch before he read the awful news in the morning papers, 
explaining that while Marshall had been captured In' the Indians, it 
was "all right," and they would let him go after he had told a 
few stories and taught them some tricks they already knew better 
than he did himself. At 1 1 o'clock (which was i a. m. in New 
York) the Indian organizers gave it up, and thus a startlinp- 
sensation was spoiled. But if a band of red men had happened 

along that night they would 
have received a welcome that 
would have startled their native 
minds and appeased their most 
thirsty palates. No matter what 
their tribe, the New Mexico 
editor exacted a promise that 
they should be called Apaches, 
for he didn't like Apaches. 

We arrived in the after- 
noon at the "city" of Las 
\"egas. This commercial center 
of New Mexico, of which we 
enjoyed a hasty view, rejoices 
in si.\ bright and able news- 
papers, and in a city hall, the only municipal l)uilding in the 
territory. It lies on both sides of the Rio Gallinas, which is 
spanned bv a substantial iron bridge. The place bears numerous 
evidences of a go-ahead spirit among its people, the streets and 
residences being lighted bv electric lights and gas, and street cars 
traversing its more important thoroughfares. But a short stop was 
made there, however, when we were switched on to a branch road 
and a ride of five miles carried us to the splendid Montezuma 

117 




MAKMIALl. P. WILDEK IC.N IKRIAIiNIN ( : THE 
INIiIANS AT THE NEEnLES, CAL. 



hotel on the crest of a loftv hill, overlookinc; the hot springs 
which have made the locality famous. The Montezuma Hotel is 
the hnest hostelry between St. Louis anti the Pacific coast, and 
the A., T. and S. F. Railroad Company has exiK-nded many 
thousands of dollars to perfect every detail. The dining-room is 
one of the largest and most elegant on the American continent. 
The party amused themselves riding on bitrros. presenting thereby 
an appearance of indescribable dignity, inspecting the attractions of 
the hotel and exploring the natural beauties of the locality, winding- 
up with a State dinner in the fine dining room, at which the regu- 
lation speeches were made on both sides, and at six o'clock we 
were under way again. 

That night we passed through the famous Raton Tunnel, and 
afterward, with a powerful engine at each end of the train, on 
emertrin"' into Colorado, we made a descent of sixteen hundred 
feet in twenty miles. Notwithstanding bcjth engines had their 
driving-wheels reversed, we shot down the mountain at such a 
rapid rate as to cause the sparks to lly in a continuous shower 
through the friction of the brake shoes against the wheels of the 
cars. The beauties of the region were wholly lost to us in the 
blackness of the night, but we had more fire-works than were 
really enjoyable. 

Nothing of special interest happened to mar the monotony of 
the next day's ride through Colorado, excepting the geographical 
fact that at 8.15 a. m. we crossed the State line into Kansas. On 
that evening a particularly pleasant social event was celebrated in 
the Windermere, which, through being exclusivelv occupied by 
married persons, had received from the irreverent bachelors of the 
party the appellation of " Matrimonial Car." The fact had become 
known that January 28th was the second anniversarv of the wedding 
of Delegate George F. Lyon, of the New York l^ess Club, and 

118 




THE BOSTON PRESS CLUB DELEGATES. 
E. J. Carpenter, 



j. C. Morse. 



W. B, Smakt. 



W. V. Al-EXANDER. 



W. C. Grout. 




DELEGATES FROM SYRACUSE, BUFFALO AN'D BALTIMORE. 

E. J. F>.EiRv, S G. Laimam. 

U, R. Newton, 

E. H. O'Hara, ]■ S. Stii.lman. 



his charming wife, and thcii friends in that car prepared tu 
celebrate the occasion with a surprise partv. Accordingly, about 
eight o'clock, the seats and aisles of the Windermere were suddenly 
crowded bv an irruption from the other cars on the train, and the 
young" couple, to their gratified astonishment, foiuid themselves the 
special centers of attraction to a large assemblage, who proceeded 
with merrv informality to offer them ever\" friendlv congratulation 
that the occasion could suggest. A jollier anniversary was never 
celebrated. There was music, and there was speech-making, of 
course, and a general interchange of matrimonial experiences, which, 
bv the brilliant coloring with which it invested the connLd)ial 
state, so wrought ujton the tender sensibilities of the unmarried 
guests that thev found themselves constrained, men and women, to 
explain the reasons that iiad impelled them to remain single. It 
would be interesting, but manifestlv improper, to reveal those 
conlidences. The whole affair was charming, as a spontaneous 
testimonial of fiiendlv regard, antl it will doubtless be a cherished 
remembrance to the couple in whose honor it was devised, as it 
assuretllv will be an agreeable one to all tlie other participants. 

Reaching Kansas City shorth' after midnight on January 2gtli. 
we were transferred to the Wabash Railroad, paiting legretiuUy 
from our courteous hosts of the Atchison, To|)eka & Santa Fc 
Railroatl, who had been olu' escorts since lea\'ing Los Angeles on 
January 22(\. Duiing that interval we had ritlden on the tracks of 
that might}" organi/.atioi"i 3.701 niiles, the longest run we i"iiade on 
an\" single road in the entire journe\". That forenoon we reached 
St. Louis. 

Now, when the H\ii"ig part\ of Press Clubbers reached St. 
Louis, heading" lutstward, on the i"norning ot January 2qth, they 
began to feel themselves aln"iost at home ayain, and to imatiine 
that thev already could catch the scent of the Atlantic. But there 



were some dainty experiences still in store for them, without an 
account of which this narrative would be incomplete, though, were 
an attempt made to relate them in detail, with full accent upon all 
their enjoyable incidents, and with proper proportionate allowance 
for their varieties of elegance and novelty and enthusiastic 
hospitality, this volume might well swell into a series, and this 
modest tale of travel be expanded into the dimensions of the tail 
of a comet. The representative citizens of St. Louis, on the day 
preceding the arrival of the Wagner train, had appointed a special 
Reception Committee for the entertainment of the guests, and a 
most expert committee it proved to be, each member thereof 
taking special charge of a carriage load of the visitors, for whose 
instruction and edification he displayed unremitting solicitude. 
Arriving at the depot at 11.15 o'clock, the party were without 
delay conveyed in carriages to the Merchants' Exchange and were 
ceremoniously ushered into the great hall, whereupon the bulls 
and bears at once ceased their shouting and cavorting, and came 
out of the "pit" to gaze upon the faces of the interested guests. 
The van of the procession was led by the Reception Committee, 
and they marched straight for the rostrum, where sat Mayor 
Noonan, President Walbridge, of the City Council, Acting 
President Delafield, of the Merchants' Exchange, and other 
prominent citizens. The visitors were welcomed by Acting 
President Delafield on behalf of the Exchange, and Mayor 
Noonan for the city. Mr. Frank Gaienne and other St. Louisans 
also made a few remarks. They were followed on behalf of the 
League party bv Mr. Keenan, Miss Kate Field, Mrs. Leslie and 
Marshall P. Wilder. After the speech-making was over, the 
delegation took carriages for a drive through the parks and 
boulevards, and then they repaired to the Fair Grounds to partake 
of a handsome banquet spread by the St. Louis Jockey Club, 



where appropriate toasts were proposed and responded to by 
Mayor Noonan, Secretary Price and others in the usual way. At 
seven o'clock that evening the tourists left for the East. The 
enterprise of St. Louis journalism was disjilayed in the wholesale 
interx'iewinu' with which the papers were embellished tiiat evening 
and the following dav. Eugene Field and Nelly Bly, especially, 
neither of whom was or had been in the [jarty, were subjected to 
a series of interrogatories respecting the experiences they had 
encountered and the ideas they had picked up on the California 
trip, their dul\- recorded responses to which excited tiie envy ot 
the traveling scribes, whose most brilliant imaginative llights had 
never soared to such an altitude of fabulous construction. The 
pulilished comments, also, alleged to iuive been uttered by Mr. 
William Wilde and Mrs. Leslie Wilde and Miss Field were only 
equalled in vigor of inaccuracv by the utterlv misleading descriptixx- 
comments pul)lisiied in regard to several members of the party. 
This almost suiier-numdane journalistic gift is essentiall\- a Western 
aptitude, that, as everybody knows, has no equivalent in the East. 
It will not bear Oriental transplanting. It was, for instance, a 
notable fact, and one that had given rise to much expression of 
regret, that Col. John A. Cockerill, President of the New York 
Press Club, was unable to accompany the party. That trifling 
circumstance, however, seemed to impart a special spur to the 
energy with which the reporters of the San Francisco papers 
interviewed liim at the numerous hotels he patronizeel during the 
few days of his supposititious visit to that city. 

At seven o'clock we were again under way, still on the Wabash 
Railroad, in our luxurious Wagner i)alaces, whose attractiveness 
seemed to increase as the time we were to enjoy them diminished. 
After dinner the tables were removed from the tlining car, and, 
the passengers being seated, Mr. Berri, Chairman of the New 




EASTERN AND WESTERN DELEGATES AND GUESTS. 



E. FJ. FlSHEK, 

Sam, C. Austin, 



C. C. Smii h, 

Geo. H, Lowenke. 



York delegation, presented, on behalf of the assembled delegates, an 
elegant silver salad l)o\vl to Mr. and Mrs. Yager, accompanving the 
presentation with a happy little speech that admirably expressed 
the sentiment of the donors, and brought blushes of modest 
pleasure to the cheeks of the recipients. Mr. Yager thanked the 
party briefly, whereupon Mr. Berri proceeded, on behalf of the 
same constituency, to present a handsome silver set to Mr. Jerome. 
That modest bachelor was so overcome with emotion that he 
was obliged to secure the services of Miss Kate Field to give his 
thanks expression. Seal rings, with their initials set in diamonds, 
were likewise presented to Mr. Cornell, chief of the dining car, 
and Mr. Morrison, the conductor, who iiad accompanied the train 
through the entire journey, and to whom every person of the 
party was indebted for courtesies innumerable. Nor was that 
important functionary, the clicf, forgotten. The recollection of 
many savory meals he had prepared, and the consciousness of the 
general increase of avoirdupois which was attributed to his skill, 
were testified to in the shape of a handsome scarf pin, the 
acceptance of which brought to his cheeks a more ruddy glow 
than that they bore when he was officiating over the fires of his 
range. A speech being insisted upon, he shuffled forward with his 
white cap in his hand, and explained his position in sententious 
style : " I's a fuss rate cook, but I ain't no actor, so you must 
'scuse me from makin' a speech." We had encountered others 
through the previous few weeks who, like him, were "no actors," 
but, alas, they did not always seek to be excused. 

At noon, on January 30th, we arrived at Toledo, and it seemed 
as though the whole city was on the alert for our reception, 
thanks to tiie efiforts of the delegates from that city, Messrs. 
Boyle and Murphy. The Toledo visit was simply exquisite. After 
being formally welcomed by the Hon. Frank H. Hurd, at the 

124 



Chamber of Commerce, and listening to the sprightly response of 
Delegate VV. V. Alexander, of Boston, a banquet was partaken of 
at the elegant Club House. That repast was really remarkable for 
its elegance, variety and profusion. The floral display was 
magnificent, considering the latitude and the season of the year. 
At every plate was a beautiful hand-painted souvenir menu. Most 
delightful of all, however, were the gracious courtesies of the 
ladies, who vied with the men of Toledo in giving the party a 
hearty reception. 

On leaving Toledo we left also the delegates from Pittsburg, 
who returned home from that city. However, we were rejoiced to 
find that many of our entertamers were to accompany us to 
Detroit, where, at 3.30 o'clock that afternoon, the special train 
pulled into the Michigan Central depot. The party were 
immediately taken in hand by the local reception committee and 
handed into carriages, and were driven up Jefferson avenue to the 
Museum of Art, where half an hour was spent in admiring its 
contents. Repairing then to the Russell House, an opportunity 
was given to become acquainted with our hosts and hostesses. 
For three-quarters of an hour the corridors and parlors of the 
hotel were thronged, and impromptu receptions were in progress 
on every hand. In one parlor Miss Kate Field was the centre of 
a group, among whom were Hon. Alfred Russell, Hon. Don. M. 
Dickinson, Richard Storrs Willis and Mrs. Herman Dey. In other 
parlors similar coteries were gathered, while the rank and file 
scattered about and enjoyed themselves as best suited their fancy. 
At 5.30 o'clock the doors of the dining room were thrown open 
and the quests filed in. In a few moments the room was 
transformed into a scene of gaiety unsurpassed. A large 
representation of Detroit's citizenship was present. Among the 
invited guests were Mr. and Mrs. Richard Storrs Willis, Mrs. 

125 



John J. Bagley, Col. William Ludlow, U. S. x-\., Mrs. Campau 
Thompson, Mrs. Herman Dey, Alfred Russell, ex-Postmaster- 
General Dickinson and others. An hour or so was spent in the 
discussion of an elegant menu. The appetites being finally 
appeased, Mr. William E. Quinby, Chairman of the Reception 
Committee, rapped for order and calletl upon the Mendelsohn 
puartet for a vocal selection. Mr. Ouinby then welcomed the 
guests and introduced as the first speaker the Hon. Don. M. 
Dickinson, ex-Postmaster-General. Mr. Dickinson, who was greeted 
with a round of cheers, expressed a hearty welcome to the visitors 
on behalf of the citizens of Detroit. He paid a handsome trii)ute 
to the ladies of the party, which brought out several "ohs" and 
"mys" in different parts of the room. He thought it would be 
well if the ladies alwavs attended ban([uets, although he could not 
sincerely say the men would have a better time if they should. Tiie 
"ahs" were in the majority at this remark. Mr. Dickinson dwelt 
warmlv upon the prospects of Detroit as a future seaport. He 
said: "We are to have direct connection with tide-water and, in the 
course of time, we will trade direct with Liverpool and tiie ports 
of South America without change of bulk. We are bound to get 
it, and the great Northwest, an empire in itself, will hew and 
dig and blast away until we do get it. The time will come when 
vve can load our own ships at our doors with provisions for 
starving Russia without asking your leave of Congress." Mr. 
Dickinson was succeeded by Delegate T. II. Martin, of Phikuleliihia, 
and Miss Kate Field, of Washington, and the entertainment was 
brought to a cheerv close bv the " Modocs " o( the Wagner Buffet 
car Sfivino- one of their characteristic demoniacal war whoops, after 
hearing which no person felt anv desire to prolong the sitting 
another instant. But the day's festivities were by no means ended. 
Hardly had the banquet hall been vacated wlien the guests entered 

126 



the carriages and were driven to the residence of General R. A. 
Alger. Here they were received by General and Mrs. Alger, their 
daughters and sons. The elegant home, with its wealth of paintings, 
was for more than an hour a brilliant scene. The guests were 
continually on the move, and many acquaintances were formed that 
will long be treasured by the participants. Among the diversions 




\II.\V UK MACAKA FALLS FKO.M THE CAiNAI)L\N MIlK. 

was a humorous speech of Col. William Ludlow on the "Army 
and Navy," and several stories were told by Marshall P. Wilder. 
General Alger himself was called upon to speak during the 
evening, and responded with graceful eloquence. 

At eleven o'clock we took the train again. It was the last 



127 



night we were to enjoy its hospitable shelter. With great regret, 
a sentiment that was experienced on both sides, we took leave 
here of our fiiiiis Achates Jerome, of ever blessed memory. 
Wearied with the excitements of the day, the partv were soon 
wrapped in slumber, and it seemed as tlu)Ugh thev had hardly fallen 
aslee]) when thev were routed cnit again at seven o'clock on 





KMF.mUNi; l-RO.M THE IIKUII.ANDS ON THE NEW VdKK CENTRAL K. K. 

Sunday, January 31st, to view the beauties of Niagara Falls in its 
winter garb. I'ortified with a hast\- cu|) of coffee they were 
speedily seated in sleighs and comfortabh' wr;!p|)cil in warm robes, 
were whisked away for an hour's ride, in which they were afforded 
an excellent sight of the Rapids and the river and tiie brails from 
every advantageous point of \icw. The spectacle is alwavs 



128 



impressive, marvelous and grand, at whatever season it is enjoyed, 
but it must be confessed that its sublimity is somewhat cramped 
when it is partaken of on an empty stomach. It was interesting 
on returning to the train to note how, after a hot breakfast had 
been eaten, the enthusiasm of the party burst forth, afresh, as the 
cataract itself was destined to do when relieved of its icy fetters 
and polar ornamentation. 

Now, all interest was centered upon reaching home. The 
party was rapidly diminishing in numbers, and leave-taking was in 







NEAKINC HUME. — IIU'.II liKlDGE, ON THE HAliLKiM KIVER. 

order. At Syracuse, Rochester and Albany guests and delegates 
who had joined us there on the outward trip bade us adieu, and 
by nightfall almost the onlv remaining occupants of the train were 
the New York delegation and a few from Boston and Philadelphia. 
There was one more little social incident to occur. We had been 
rejoined at Niagara by Mr. Roach, Mr. Underwood, of the 
Michigan Central, leaving us at that point. When night came and 
we were rattling down the shore of the Hudson at the rate of 



129 



al)()Ul si.\t\'-h\'c mik's an hour, Mr. Roach was presented l)y Mr. 
Berri. on luliall of the whole delet^alion, with a set of silver, icjr 
which he returned thanks in a neat little resi)onse that effectually 
confumed his reputation as a read\' spe;iker. 

At lo I'. M. we were in the (irand Central depot, at our 
journey's end. 

lirnuihisiniii /oiioac finis chai'tac<]uc viaccjiic. 




Chaptkr v. 

Thj-: M'AGAf'.R Palace Train and Our Railroad Hosts. 




TIE trip was ended. It had been one of unalloyed 
enjoyment. The party of 120 men and women found 
themselves again at their point of departure without 
the occurrence of a single mishap to mar the record 
of nearly four weeks of pleasurable excitement and 
incessant activity. In that interval they had been 
carried twice across the breadth of the continent ; 
had visited all the places of interest on their route ; 
had received entertainment such as had seldom, if ever before, 
been tendered to strangers on the wing, and had, furthermore, in 
various ways contributed to the making of history. Not the least 
noteworthy of these was the manner in which the details of the 
journev had been conducted. In truth, the whole success of the 
trip was due to the magnificent provision made for their 
entertainment by the officials of the New York Central Railroad 
Company conjointly with those of the Wagner Palace Car 
Company. The former gave the use of its tracks, and the power 
of its potent infiuence exercised magic sway on every road the 
train traveled over. The Wagner Company supplemented tiiis by 
tendering to the delegates the most sumptuously apj)ointed and 
most profusely stocked special train of vestibuled palace cars that 
ever set out from the Grand Central Depot. Every attribute of 



comfort, ease and luxurious satisfaction that modern ingenuity has 
devised for the gratification of the traveHng jiuhlic, was combined 
in that special train, and, what was more to the purpose, it was 
there to be used and to be enjoyed to the utmost. The train, 
composed of six cars, represented the highest development of 
railway luxury. First was the Buffet smoking car, " No. 655." 
followed by two sleeping cars, the "Westmoreland" and 
" Windermere." Then came the dining car in the center of the 
train. The last two cars were the " Rael)urn " and the "Magenta," 
the latter being divided into state-room compartments. The whole 
train was warmed with steam and Baker heaters, and lighted by 
gas, though there was prudently an abundance of auxiliary oil and 
bracket candle lamps, to be used when the gas gave out. Each 
car was supplied with hot and cold water. The interiors were 
upholstered to correspond with the wood work with silk damask, 
bordered with i)lush. It was claimed to be the heaviest solid 
vestibule train that ever made the round trip Ixtween New York 
and San Francisco. At every station where it stopped it excited 
the greatest admiration and praise, and the loudest of all to 
proclaim its beauty and magnificence were the railroad men, who 
flocked to the depots to inspect it. Nothing that skill and 
enterprise could deyise was lacking in its equipment, and it was 
complacently claimed by the travelers that it was superior to the 
train which shortly before had conveyed Presitlent Harrison's party 
on its trip to the Pacific coast. The Wagner people determined 
that the newspaper men should have no possible chance for adverse 
criticism, and they carried their intentions out to the very letter. 
The only reasonable criticism the guests could conjure up was based 
upon the lavish character of their entertainment. A more efficient 
crew of attendants never accompanied a train. Every man knew 
his business and, therefore, every want of the passengers was cared 

132 



for. There were in all twenty emplo3f^s, consisting of the 
conductor, steward, barber, four cooks, five waiters, six porters and 
the baggagemen. In regard to the cooking there was nothing left 
to be desired, and from the first da}^ that the party dined on the 
outward journe)' to the return to New York there was no room 
for the slightest complaint. The service on the part of the 
steward, Mr. E. L. Cornell, and his efficient aids would challenge 
comparison with that of the best hotels in the United States. 
The favorite resort of the gentlemen, particularly the unmarried 
ones, on the trip was the buffet smoker. It was a thine of beauty 
and a joy, and without it the pleasure of the trip would have been 
immeasureably lessened. This traveling club-house was finished in 
oak and mahogany. The forward part was used for baggage. 
Next came a bath-room, and adjoining the bath was the barber's 
room, containing a barber's chair, in which, thanks to the skill of 
Mr. Frank, the tonsorial artist who presided, the requirements of 
the travelers in his line could be attended to with almost as much 
satisfaction at a forty mile gait, as under the most favorable 
conditions in a barber shop on terra finna. Next to the barber 
shop were two sections that could l)e used for card playing. I 
do not state that they were so utilized, however. These two 
sections could be entirely shut off from the other portions of the 
car by means of a mahogany partition and plush curtains. Back 
of this adjustable section was a writing desk, furnished with 
stationery on tap, and all the conveniences for correspondence or 
telegraphing, while on the other side, Mr. W. Archer, the 
stenographer from Mr. Yager's New York office, with his writ- 
ing machine, was located. His services were placed at the 
disposal of the travelers, and were in steady requisition. The 
central portion of the buffet car was devoted to the smokers. 
Here there were large moveable easy chairs of oak and cane, 

133 



heavilv upholstered with plush. " Standing room only." was 
almost invariably the condition in this part of the train after 
meals and during the evening. Long will the remembrance 
abide of the funny stories, the racy anecdotes, the recitations, the 
shop talk, the schemes of organization, the earnest debates and 
the hot-headed discussions, as w^ell as the effervescences of hisfh- 
flown rhetoric, and the bursts of eloquence that were steadily 
in progress in that buffet car during the trip. Neither will the 
war whoop of "the Modocs" be readily forgotten. Next in 
order came the most extensively |)atronized of all the special 
departments of the train. This was the buffet Itself, from which 
the rubicund r3an, or his sober-minded companion Gates, incessantlv 
peered, awaiting calls for lemonade, ginger ale, sarsaparilla and 
soda, or occasionally the foaming beer bottle. There, also, was 
a library of admiral >ly selected l)ooks, which served to beguile 
many a leisure hour to all the passengers on the train. Next to 
the buffet car was the Westmoreland, the "Stag Car" as it was 
designated, being occupied exclusively by the bachelors of the 
party. In the other cars were the married delegates and the 
ladies and other guests. The dining car was one of the hand- 
somest ever constructed, and, of course, of the most approved 
pattern, the old style of section seats having been superseded by 
the sul)stitution of chairs. On the left side of the car, as the 
illustration shows, were tables accommodating four persons, and 
on the right side there were tables seating two each, thus giving 
ample room for passing back and forth. Thirty persons could 
be served at one time. What added greatly to the convenience 
and enjoyment of the trip was the circumstance already alluded 
to, that all the tables in the car could l)e removed and a change 
could be made into a traveling hall, where fre(iuent entertain- 
ments were given during the trip. 

134 



The guests of the tri|) were attentively cared for. Mrs. 
Frank Leslie occuiiietl a drawing-room section in the Raeburn, 
and was very comfortably situated. Mr. Willie Wilde occupied 
a section to himself, just outside. Miss Kate Field was assigned 
a state-room in the last car of the train — the Magenta — in which 
car were most of the officers of the League and tiieir wives and 
invited guests. This car was one of particularlv elegant con- 
struction and convenience, the state-rooms being so arranged 
that they coukl, if desired, be joined in suites. 

Despite the size and Wright of this great train, it arrived at 
its destination half an hour ahead of its scliedule time, and this 
in the face of the severe storms that accom|)anied it in its entire 
trip from New York to San Francisco. It is a remarkable fact 
that there was not a hot bo.\ during the whole journev, though 
the brake-shoes were almost worn through on account of the 
enormous and arduous amount of work done on the heavy grades 
over the Rockies and Sierras. "There were served," says 
Statistician Morse, of the Pxiston Press Clui), "about 125 people 
per dav. Tiu' train was provisioned at New York with groceries, 
etc., for the round liip. while ]>crishable siip|)lic-s werr ]iurchased 
en route. The train was e(|uii)|icd, in adililion to other essential 
articles, with 1,000 sheets, 1,000 slips, 2,500 hand towels, 500 
barber towels, 50 glass towels, 500 table cloths, 1,500 napkins 
and 650 dovlies. The expense of the washing for the Iri]) was 
over $400, laundrv work having to be done at San Bernardino 
and San Francisco. Everything" was as bright and clean and 
as fresh on the return to New York as had been the case at the 
departure." 

That everything was so admirablv contrived for the enjoyment 
of the whole trip, was in a verv large measure due to the execu- 
tive abilities and energetic efforts of Messrs. W. B. Jerome, 



General Western Passenger Agent of the New York Central 
Railroad, and Mr. J. C. Yager, the Eastern Superintendent of 
the Wagner Palaee Car Company. Mr. Jerome was the railway 
representative on the entiie trip from Chicago, and the manner 
in which he attended to his portion of the duties called forth the 
highest praise from every member of the party. Mr. Jerome is a 
native of Auburn, N. Y., and has occupied his present responsible 
position about ten years. 

The excellence of the internal economy of the train and the 
service and discipline were due to the presence of Superintendent 
of the Wagner Palace Car Company John C. Yager. That gentle- 
man made it a point to anticipate the wants of every one on the 
train, and any suggestion that came to his ears received instant 
attention. He seemed to be omnipresent. He omitted nothing. 
He watched everything. Mr. Yager was born in Piqua, Ohio, 
and has been connected with sleeping car companies for the past 
sixteen years, during seven of which he has occupied the position 
of Eastern Superintendent for the Wagner Company, having 
charge of all lines east of Buffalo, with headquarters at New 
York. 

Another railway official who left no stone unturned to secure 
for the delegates the unprecedented comfort that they enjoyed, 
and who succeeded admiralily therein, was Mr. Milton C. Roach, 
General Eastern Passenger Agent of the New York Central and 
Hudson River Railroad. Mr. Roach not only accompanied the 
party as far as Chicago, but also delighted the many friends that 
he made on the outward trip by returning from Niagara P""alls to 
New York with them. 

To Mr. George H. Daniels, of the New York Central Rail- 
road, is due a large share of credit, for it was he who made it 
possible for his subordinates to perform their work so well, and 

138 




GUESTS AND RAILROAD OFFICIALS. 
J. Seaver Page, 



Dr. a. S. Hunter, 



W. B. Jerome, 



M. C. Roach, 



M. H. Brown, 
J. C. Yager. 



it was he who made all the- preliminary arrangements for the 
journey, that resulted in such wholesale success. Mr. E. J. 
Richards, Assistant General Passenger Agent, was also solicitious 
for our welfare, accompanying the party to Alhanv on the outward 
trip, and meeting it again on the return, to escort it through 
New York State to its starting point. 

Nothing, in fact, could surpass the watchful care with which 
the Eastern travelers were unremittingly surrounded hv their rail- 
road hosts and protectors. Up the mountains and down the 
mountains, through narrow ami iMecipitous passes, past craggy 
ledges and by the edges of rivers the train was borne along at 
sometimes startling speed, but the jjassengers were relieved from 
all sense of nervousness by the knowledge that their immediate 
destinies were in the charge of the Napoleonic Jerome, unruffled, 
alert, unsleeping, all observant, and alwavs thoroughly master of 
the situation. If the journey, in all its perfect details, realized 
the notion of "the poetry of travel," Jerome was the poet laureate 
to whom was due the even smoothness that marked its cadcnced 
rhythm. Then, too, over each road that was traversed the party 
was escorted by some of its highest officials. The narrative of 
the journey would be incomplete without a detailed record of the 
gentlemen who accompanied the delegates over the lines of road 
they severallv represented, and to whom the travelers desire, 
through this medium, to express their earnest thanks. They were : 

J. C. V.vcKK, Uivision Superintendent of the Wagner Palace Car Company, 
representing his compan}' on the entire trip (accompanied b}- Mrs. Yager). 

W. B. Jerome, General Western Passenger Agent of the New Y(jrk Central 
and Hudson River Railroad, representing his company the entire trip 
from Chicago to -San Francisco, and returning, to Detroit. 

E. J. RuHARDS, Assistant General Passenger Agent New York Central Rail- 
road, from New York to Albany. 

M. C Roach, General Eastern Passenger Agent, New York Central Railroad, 
New York to Chicago, and return from Niagara Falls. 

140 



W. II. Underwchji), Eastern Passenger Agent, Michigan Central Railroad, New 
York to Chicago, and Detroit to Buffalo on return. 

C. L. Leonori, General Commissary, Wagner Palace Car Company, Buffalo 

to Chicago. 

Ja.mes Gibson, District Passenger Agent, Chicago and Northwestern Railway, 
Chicago to Omaha. 

B. S. Andrews, of the Passenger and Ticket Department, Chicago and North- 

western Railway, Chicago to Denver. 

D. E. BuRLEv, of the Passenger Department, Union Pacific Railway, Omaha 

to Denver. 

S. K. Hooper, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Denver and Rio Grande 
Railroad, Denver to Salt Lake. 

F. A. Wadleigh, Assistant General Passenger Agent, Denver and Rio Grande 
Railroad, Denver to Grand Junction. 

J. J. Burns, Superintendent of First Division, Denver and Rio Grande Rail- 
road, Colorado Springs to Glenwood Springs. 

C. C. Smith, Assistant General Passenger Agent, Rio Grande Western Rail- 

way, Grand Junction to Ogden. 

W. L. Knmc.ht, Traveling Passenger Agent, Southern Pacific Railway, Ogden 
to San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

W. C. Morrow, of the Passenger Department, Southern Pacific Railway, 
Ogden to San Francisco and Los Angeles. 

E. F. Burnett, Passenger Agent, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, 

from Los Angeles to Kansas City, Mo. 

F. Chandler, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Wabash Railroad Com- 

pany, Kansas City to Detroit. 

H. DuRAND, Passenger Department, Wabash Railroad Company, Kansas City 
to St. Louis. 

This record of our railroad hosts should include the names of 
Dr. Seward Webb, President, and Mr. C. D. Flagg, Vice-President 
of the Wagner Palace Car Company, who directed that the special 
Wagner train be placed at the disposal of the League and made 
the agreeable trip possible. 

Railroad officials deserving of most honorable and grateful 
mention, besides those named above, are, Mr. O. W. Rug-orles, 
General Passenger and Ticket Agent, Michigan Central Railroad ; 
Mr. W. F. White, Passenger Traffic Manager, Atchison, Topeka 

141 



(S: Santa Fe Railroad Company, and Mr. C. P. Huntington, 
President Southern Pacific Company. 

A further illustration of the solicitude shown for the Press 
Club party by their railroad entertainers was afforded in the 
circumstance of their inviting Dr. Alexander S. Hunter, one of 
New York's distinguished physicians, to take part in the trip, 
in the capacity of special medical attendant. Dr. Hunter was 
accompanied by his estimable wife. His own genial presence 
was a continuous tonic and stimulant, and possibly to the con- 
fidence imparted by that attractive quality on his part was due 
the unusual fact of a party of over a hundred 
persons making a continued journey of nearly 
nine thousand miles witliout anv one of the 
number falling sick or in any serious way 
requiring medical attendance. 

In fact, the personnel of the party was, 
throughout, all that could have been desired 
to render the trip a success. The subject 
must not be closed without mentioning the 
attendance on the route of a phantom guest, 
who turned uj) regularly at every stopping 
place, and was a welcome participant in the 

entertainments provided for the travelers, disappearing, however, 
as soon as preparations began for resuming the journey. This 
mysterious traxeling companion was Mr. H. \V. Chapin, of Syracuse, 
a popular memljer of the Press Club of that city. B\- careful 
study and manipulation of the time tables, Mr. Chapin managed 
to .secure a train just in advance of the " Wagner special," so as to 
be regularly on iiand to welcoiue the party on its arrival at each 
successive point where it was to disembark from the train. He 
had the remarkable fortune in a trip of 9,153 miles to make every 

142 




II. \V. ( IIAI'IN, (IK ^VRACL'Sli. 



connection that he had planned before setting out from Syracuse, 
though he confessed afterward that it had kept him very busy to 
keep pace with the rapid movements of the Wagner excursionists. 



Travel has been declared to be the " Fool's Paradise." If 
the epigram embodies a truth, it is also true that the fool may 
inhabit Paradise without monopolizing it. It would be a narrow 
and imperfect view of the subject that would seek to belittle the 
gratification of travel or to exclude men of sense from its appre- 
ciative enjoyment. A man may make a journey of many miles 
in these days of rails and wires without really slackening his grasp 
upon the interests he leaves behind him, nor can he fairly consider 
himself as ever getting wholly out of reaching distance of his 
home. The improvements in this respect which have occurred 
within the observation of men still in the prime of life are amono- 
the most striking illustrations of the accelerated velocity with 
which this moribund Nineteenth Century has been spinning " down 
the ringing grooves of change." There are many who readily recall 
the time when a voyage to Europe, or especially a trip across 
this continent, was a portentous undertaking, demanding serious 
contemplation beforehand, and perhaps exciting the sympathetic 
apprehensions of one's acquaintances. Who shall dare to con- 
jecture what facilities for traveling will be in use at the end of 
the next century ? But let them be what they may, with all 
their possibilities of improved conditions, they cannot confer greater 
satisfaction upon the people of that coming period than the Press 
Club Leaguers of this day and generation experienced in their 
rapid railroad ride briefly related in the preceding pages. The 
narrative has been prepared at the request of the League, merely 
to give enduring form to the recollection of what must be 



143 



treasured as an enjoyalile episode in the life of every man and 
woman who took part in it. It was not desired, on the one hand, 
nor attempted on the other, to make tiiis more than a condensed 
recital of such incidents as fell within the writer's own observation, 
anil, accordingly, he has not aimed at describing those facts from 
the high standpoint of expert reporting, nor on the lower plane 
of editorial discussion. As Martial says : "His subject was so 
fruitful that he had the less need for the exercise of wit." 




f^oute of Xravel of the International press League. 

■^^ 



MILES. 



New York Central and Michigan Central- 
New York to Chicago .(3 

Chicago and Northwestern — 

Chicago to Omaha ^^ 

Union Pacific — 

Omaha to Denver ._2 

Denver and Rio Grande and Rio Grande Western- 
Denver to Ogden ^g 4 

Side Trips about Salt Lake City and to Gas Wells 35 

Southern Pacific — 

Ogden to San Francisco goc 

San Francisco to Monterey ,27 

Monterey to Pajaro 28 

Pajaro to Santa Cruz 21 

Santa Cruz to San Jose ^c 

San Jose to San Francisco co 

San Francisco to Los Angeles .82 

Southern California (now A., T. and S. F. R. R.) — 

Los Angeles to Pasedena and Return 20 

Los Angeles to Kedondo Beach and return 46 

Los Angeles to Redlands and return to San Bernardino 71 

San Bernardino to San Diego 124 

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe^ 

San Diego to Kansas City, making stops as follows : Albuquerque, 

Santa Fe and Las Vegas Hot Springs 2,392 

Lamy Junction to Santa Fe and return 36 

Las Vegas to Hot Springs and return 12 

Wabash Railroad — 

Kansas City to St. Louis 277 

St. Louis to Toledo ^36 

Michigan Central Railway — 

Toledo to Detroit ^9 

Detroit to Buffalo 251 

New York Central Railroad — 

Buffalo to New York 444 

Total 8,676 

147 



What the Delegates H^*^ to ^^y A^out the Trip. 



The sul)j(MiK'd list of the special contributions sent to their 
respective papers duriny- the journev bv the delegates on the train 
is not claimed to be exhaustive. It comprises those only whicii 
lia\'e come i)efore the notice of the jMCsent writer. The dates given 
are those of their publication : 

Chas. W. Price, Elcitrical Kevieio — 

Feb. 13th, "Tlie Press Club League Ci)nveutiun." 

J. C. Morse, Boston Hrrahl— 

Feb. 3d. "Tlic Press Delegates' Train." 

J. B. Dampman, Reading Nrra/J — 

Jan. i;th. "The Start and the Train." 

i^lh. "(Jn the Fly through Nebraska." 

" i6tli. "Denver's Magic Growth." 

" 19th. "Crossing the Rockies." 

-oth. "Salt Lake City." 

" jjth. "At the Golden Gate." 

" 26th. "California's Wonders." 

" 29th. "Model Street Cars in .San l~iancisco." 

" 3otli. "X'ineyards of Fresno." 

Feb. 1st. "San Jose." 

2(1. "A \'isit to Monterey." 

" 3d. "Rece[itions and Banquets." 

" 5th. "Sacramento to Los Angeles." 

" 2(1. "Ban(|uet of the Reading Press Club." 

C. H. George, Baltimore Aiiu-rican — 

Feb. 5th. "From Ocean to Ocean." 

* Miss Mary Allen West, Chicago Union Signa/ — 
"Across the Continent." 

T. J. Keenan, Jr., Pittsburgh /'riss — 

Feb. 1 ith. "Over the R(jckies." 

" 15th. "Salt Lake and Auburn." 

" 20th. "Chinatown." 

* This most estimable lady, a dislinffuisheJ temperance advocate, separated from the party at Los Angeles to visit 
I.i;)an on missionary work, and died in Tnkio, December 1st, 1892. 






T. J. Keenan, Jr., Pittsburgh Pmss — 

Feb. 22d. "Monterey, etc., etc." 

" 23d. "Southern California." 

Mch. 6th. "The Homeward Trip." 

" i6th. "Tlie Journey's End." 

VV. V. Alexander, Boston Tin use rip f — 

Feb. 13th. "From Ocean to Ocean." 

Lynn R. Meekins, Baltimore American — 

Feb. 12th. "From Snow to Flowers." 

" 14th. "A Day in Mormondom." (2) 
Mch. 1 2th. "Through New Mexico." 
"A Week in California." 

Mrs. E. M. Avery, Cleveland Leader— 
Jan. 25th. "A Glorious Time." 

(Chicago to San Francisco.) 
"Across the Desert." 

E. H. OTIara, Syracuse — 

Feb. 13th. "Some Things that I Saw." 

M. P. Murphy, Toledo Bee— 

Jan. 30th. "Reception in Toledo." 
Feb. ist. "Incidents of the Tour." 

E. J. Fleming, Buffalo Express — 

"Across the Continent." 

J. S. Keeler, Boston Herald — 

Jan. 26th. "Sight-Seeing on the Pacific Coast (San Jose). 

Feb. I St. "Doing Lower California." 

" 7th. "Incidents of Interest." 

" 2ist. "Further Incidents." 

" 28th. "A Boston Delegate in Chinatown." 

Mch. 13th. "The Heart of Chinatown." 

" 27th. "The Land of the Setting Sun." 

Mrs. Frances E. Owens, Chicago Journal of Industrial Edueation — 
February, March and April. 

Irving Watson, Narragansett Herald — 

Mrs. Kate F. McElrath, American Analyst, New York — 
Feb. 25th. "Atlantic to Pacific." 
Mch. 3d. 

Miss Belle Gorton, Chicago Woman's News — 
Feb. 13th. "Across the Continent." 
" 20th. "In California." 

149 



Mch. 


9th. 


" 


1 6th. 


n 


23d. 


April 


6th. 


" 


13th. 



Miss Belle Gorton, Chicago IVumaii's A''c7as — 
Mch. 5th. 
" i2th. 
" 26th. 

Kate Field's ]\'ashiiii:;ton — 

Jan. 13th. "International League of Press Clubs. 
"Crossing the Continent." 
" Denver." 

"Omaha and Palmer Lake." 
"Glenwood Springs and Zion." 
"Pioneers and Nevada." 

W. N. Penney, New York News — 

Feb. 14th. "A Sunday Amid the Rockies." 
" 2ist. "Sunday Among the Palms." 
" 28th. "Sunday in Semi-Tropical Seas." 

Mch. 6th. "Sunday on the Road — Niagara." 

Julius Muehle, Dcr Sechoti, Milwaukee, Wis. — 
Feb. 3d. "To California." 
" 6th. "The League Convention." 
" iith. "Southern California." 

T. P. McElrath, Aincric^rti Analyst, New York — 
Feb. 1 8th. "Convention of Press Clubs." 

E. B. P'isher, Grand Rapids, Mich., Eagle — 
Jan. 17th. "The Press Excursion." 
24th. "From the Coast." 
" 3tst. "Some Rare Experiences." 
Feb. 7th. "The Great Wonder of It." 

William Berri, Brooklyn Staiulai d-Union — 

Feb. I St. "Across the Continent and Back." 




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